From the AP:

A French appeals court on Monday reinstated the marriage of a Muslim man who had sought an annulment because his bride lied about being a virgin.

The controversial case pitted France’s secular values against the traditions of its growing immigrant communities.

The couple married in 2006 but the husband quickly sought an annulment after discovering on their wedding night that his bride had lied about her virginity.

In April, a lower court in the northern town of Douai granted the annulment, saying the woman “acquiesced” to the man’s demand for one “based on a lie concerning her virginity.

On Monday, the appeals court in Douai overturned the annulment, effectively ruling that the couple is again married, said lawyer Xavier Labbee, representing the husband.

Labbee said Monday’s ruling amounted to a “forced marriage.” He criticized “the intrusion of the notion of secularism into the most intimate parts of family life.”

That’s a clever new way to describe the separation of church and state.