-A woman who was blamed by French courts for her divorce because she no longer had sex with her husband won an appeal in Europe’s top human rights court, the court said on Thursday, reigniting a debate in France over women’s rights.

The French woman – identified as Ms. H.W, born in 1955 – brought her case to the European Court of Human Rights in 2021 after exhausting legal avenues in France almost a decade following the divorce.

The ECHR ruled that the French courts had violated the woman’s right to respect for private and family life.

“In the present case, the Court could not identify any reason capable of justifying this interference by the public authorities in the area of sexuality,” it said in a statement.

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