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Rabat – French lawmakers unanimously approved on Wednesday a bill that ends the idea of “marital duty,” a concept long criticized by women’s rights groups for undermining sexual consent and enabling marital rape.
The bill, backed by more than 120 members of parliament, clarifies that living together does not mean spouses are required to have sex. It was approved by the lower house, the National Assembly, and will now move to the Senate for final approval.
France’s civil code lists several duties linked to marriage, including fidelity, support, assistance, and cohabitation. It does not mention sexual obligation. However, past court rulings sometimes interpreted cohabitation as sharing a bed, allowing the idea of a sexual obligation between spouses to persist in practice.
This interpretation has had real consequences. A French court granted a man a divorce in 2019 because his wife stopped having sex with him. The case later reached Europe’s top human rights court, which ruled last year in favor of the woman, saying that refusing sex should not be considered a fault in divorce cases, France 24 reported.
The new bill is part of a broader shift in France’s approach to sexual consent. France added the principle of consent to its legal definition of rape last year.
Women’s rights groups welcomed the vote, saying it sends a clear message that marriage does not override an individual’s right to bodily autonomy and consent.
Many countries are moving toward laws that put clear sexual consent at the center of rape and marital laws, but progress is uneven.
At least 19 countries in Europe have adopted consent-based rape laws, meaning sex without consent is legally defined as rape rather than requiring proof of force or threat.
Though many nations across the world now criminalize marital rape, dozens still do not offer full legal protection for non-consensual sex within marriage, and in some places laws still imply that marriage gives automatic sexual consent.
Women’s rights activists say such reforms are important because they affirm that consent is necessary in all sexual relationships, including marriage, and affirm that marriage does not erase a person’s bodily autonomy.
They argue such changes help challenge deep-rooted cultural attitudes that have long treated sexual access within marriage as a “right,” not a choice.
