French court blocks annulling marriage over virginity

A French appeals court blocked the decision of a lower court to annul a marriage because the bride was not a virgin as she had claimed.

The ruling Friday in a case that has reflected the tension between Muslim social codes and French values effectively freezes the matter, leaving the marriage in force, until Sept. 22, when the same court will hear arguments on the substance of the case, an appeals court official said.

The case has brought together the governing party, the Union for a Popular Movement, and the opposition Socialist Party, both of which criticized the original court ruling, saying that it had given too much weight to the religious sensitivities of the couple.

The bride and groom both came from "moderate Muslim families," the groom's lawyer, Xavier Labbée, has said in newspaper interviews, although he said the ruling had not been based on any religious criteria.

A judge in the northern town of Lille annulled the marriage in April at the request of both parties after the bride disclosed after their wedding that she had had sexual relations with other men.

Are we talking about creeping sharia here or are we talking about creeping sharia? Even the French minister of Justice (!) has apelled the courts descision- while being muslim her self.

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