A French woman who stopped having sex with her husband has won an appeal in Europe’s highest court after being told she was at fault for their divorce.
Identified as H.W., the woman filed for divorce against her husband in 2012 and claimed he had been bad-tempered, violent and abusive. They had four children together.
H.W. said she stopped having sex with her husband in 2004 over health problems and threats of violence. He then counterclaimed that she failed to fulfil her marital duties and made slanderous accusations against him.
In 2019, the woman was told by a French appeals court that her refusal to have sex with him was a breach of her marital duty and ruled she was responsible for the breakdown of the marriage.
Almost six years later, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled the French court was wrong to do so, and condemned it for violating H.W.’s right to respect for private and family life.
It said on Thursday that it “could not identify any reason capable of justifying this interference by the public authorities in the area of sexuality”, and that any concept of marital duties needed to take consent into account.
“In the Court’s view, consent to marriage could not imply consent to future sexual relations,” the ECHR said. “Such an interpretation would be tantamount to denying that marital rape was reprehensible in nature.”
The ECHR added it “concluded that the very existence of such a marital obligation ran counter to sexual freedom” and to France’s obligation to combat domestic and sexual violence.
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In a statement released by lawyer Lilia Mhissen, H.W. said she hopes the decision will “mark a turning point in the fight for women’s rights in France”.
“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,” she added.
While the ruling has no impact on the divorce, Ms Mhissen said it will prevent French judges from making similar divorce rulings in the future.
H.W., who was born in 1955, brought the appeal to the ECHR in 2021 after exhausting her legal options in France.
A diplomatic source told Reuters that the French parliament is currently considering a new law that would modify the legal definition of rape.
