French woman who stopped having sex with husband wins ruling at European court

PARIS (Reuters) -A woman who was blamed by French courts for her divorce because she no longer had sex with her husband won an appeal in Europe’s top human rights court, the court said on Thursday, reigniting a debate in France over women’s rights.

The French woman – identified as Ms. H.W, born in 1955 – brought her case to the European Court of Human Rights in 2021 after exhausting legal avenues in France almost a decade following the divorce.

The ECHR ruled that the French courts had violated the woman’s right to respect for private and family life.

“In the present case, the Court could not identify any reason capable of justifying this interference by the public authorities in the area of sexuality,” it said in a statement.

The woman, who married her husband in 1984 and had four children with him, wanted the divorce, but contested being blamed for the breakdown, arguing it was an unjust intrusion into her private life and a violation of her physical integrity.

She cited health problems and threats of violence from her husband as reasons why she had not had intimate relations from 2004 onwards.

The ECHR ruling comes amid a period of soul-searching in France after the high-profile case of Gisele Pelicot, whose husband was found guilty of drugging his wife and inviting dozens of men over to their home to rape her. The case shocked the world, rekindled thorny debates about women’s rights in France and turned Gisele Pelicot into a feminist icon.

In a statement released by her lawyer, Lilia Mhissen, H.W celebrated her legal victory.

“I hope this decision will mark a turning point in the fight for women’s rights in France,” she said. “It is now imperative that France, like other European countries, such as Portugal or Spain, take concrete measures to eradicate this rape culture and promote a true culture of consent and mutual respect.”

Mhissen said the ECHR ruling has no impact on H.W.’s divorce, which is definitive. However, she said it will have a major impact on French law, preventing French judges from making similar divorce rulings in the future.

“This decision marks the abolition of the marital duty and the archaic, canonical vision of the family,” she said in a statement. “Courts will finally stop interpreting French law through the lens of canon law and imposing on women the obligation to have sexual relations within marriage.”

FRANCE TO ‘ADAPT’ LAW

France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs represented the French government in the case.

A diplomatic source said the government acknowledged the decision and added that the French government had been involved in the fight against sexual and sexist violence, especially within couples, for years. A law that would modify the legal definition of rape was under consideration in parliament at the moment, the source said.

Nicolas Hervieu, a law professor at Sciences Po university, said the decision was “humiliating for France but salutary for the reminder of the principles of sexual liberty and of protection for victims of sexual violence.”

Gerald Darmanin, France’s justice minister, told reporters he would speak with lawmakers about changing the law. “Obviously we will go in the direction of history and we will adapt our law,” he said.

H.W., who is from Le Chesnay near Paris, said she had been deeply traumatised by the original French ruling, which “legitimised a family environment where the privacy and dignity of women are ignored and flouted.”

H.W.’s case was supported by two French women’s activism groups.

Emmanuelle Piet, the head of one of them, the Feminist Collective Against Rape, said she was delighted.

“Ms. W spent 15 years fighting this battle, and it ended in victory, bravo,” she said. “When you are forced to have sexual relations in marriage, it is rape.”

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta, Gabriel Stargardter and Juliette Jabkhiro; additional reporting by John Irish; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Cynthia Osterman)