France moves to end law that punishes women for refusing sex in marriage

French lawmakers on Wednesday, Jan. 28, unanimously approved a bill seeking to end the notion of “marital duty” following criticism from women’s rights groups that it undermines s£xual consent and enables marital r@pe. 

The text – backed by more than 120 MPs in the lower house National Assembly – clarifies in the civil code that cohabitation does not create any obligation for spouses to have sexual relations. 

The cross-party bill will now have to go through the Senate upper chamber for approval. 

The French civil code lists four duties attached to marriage – fidelity, support, assistance and cohabitation – but it does not mention s£xual obligation.  

However, older court rulings sometimes interpreted cohabitation as implying a “shared bed”, allowing the idea of a “marital duty” to persist in practice.

In 2019, a man obtained a divorce in France on the grounds that his wife had stopped having s£x with him.  

Last year, Europe’s top rights court ruled in favour of his ex-wife, saying a woman who refuses to have s£x with her husband should not be considered “at fault” by courts in the event of divorce. 

France last year adopted the principle of consent into the definition of the crime of r@pe, following other European countries like the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.