France is in for the long haul. Two separate court cases highlight a country rift with religious-political strife. In June, a Muslim woman saw her marriage annulled when it came to light that she had lied about being a virgin. While feminists were outraged, the rule of that land states that an annulment can be granted if an “essential quality” has been lied about. More recently, a woman was denied French citizenship because she dons the traditional Muslim Burqa. According the the BBC, the woman, who lives with her French husband and three children, reports to have “never challenged the country’s fundamental values.” The French Urban Affairs Minister thinks otherwise. Humorously, in both cases, the French government protected women’s rights by doing exactly the opposite of what the women in the cases would have preferred. What a tangled web we weave.
