WHY YOU NEED TO BE A FEMINIST

The nationality of the married woman

In December 1907, I made my debut at the Seine Assize Court. I was arguing for two anti-militarists. a young man and a woman. In defending this, I indicated that the law of man does not allow a married woman to have a homeland, since the wife follows the condition of her spouse whose nationality she obligatorily takes. At that time, it seemed very uninteresting, no one was concerned about this question, and it seemed quite extraordinary that I attached importance to the articles of the Civil Code which regulated this question.

The war came. Public opinion was immediately shocked to see foreigners, who had become French by marriage, walking around freely and receiving benefits, while French women, foreigners by marriage, were sent to concentration camps or had to at least obtain a permit. stay.

The legislative provisions being approximately the same in all countries, there was a great movement on this subject throughout the world, because there were many states at war. The cessation of hostilities, far from stopping the movement, only increased it because, on the one hand, marriages between foreigners had been frequent and, on the other hand, women, voters in many nations, had resolved to obtain reform.

The question was therefore asked in all international feminist congresses; French associations undertook an active campaign. In June 1919, when the peace treaty had just been signed, the French League for Women's Rights organized an important session in Versailles during which the question of the nationality of married women was presented by Me Henri Lenóble. , Attorneys; At the Congress of the League in 1922, this same subject was included on the agenda, and the rapporteur was Mr. Sauleraud. advisor to the Court of Paris; his conclusions were strongly supported by Mr. Advocate General Robert Godefroy who had realized during the war how painful the situation was of certain French women whose only crime was to have married a foreigner during peace.

The French Union for Women's Suffrage worked in collaboration with the International Alliance: the Fraternal Union of Women worked especially to obtain from the Chamber the ratification, as quickly as possible, of the law passed by the Senate. So many efforts have been successful, but it is not yet a definitive success.

The government had presented to the Senate a bill relating to the acquisition and forfeiture of French nationality. Mr. Louis Marin obtained the inclusion of his proposal concerning women in the report, and his colleagues voted in favor, but this nevertheless did not completely satisfy us because the adopted text did not provide for any measures aimed at the past. Mr. Louis Martin had to accept the separation of the transitional provision that he had presented, in order not to have the whole thing rejected by the Commission.

In the Chamber, Mr. Félix Liouville, rapporteur, has just voted in the session of April 10, a very comprehensive law which provides for all cases. From now on, the French woman who would marry. a foreigner would retain her nationality, unless she declares in the marriage certificate that she wants to acquire her husband's nationality; a foreigner who marries a Frenchman would also retain her nationality, unless otherwise declared; finally, any Frenchwoman who married a foreigner, prior to the promulgation of the law would have the option of recovering her original nationality by making, with the authorization from her husband, a declaration before the justice of the peace of her home.

Numerous additions having been made to the text adopted by the Senate, the law passed by the Chamber must be referred to the High Assembly. We hope that it will be ratified all the more quickly since the Senate has already studied all the modifications made by the Chamber, which are none other than the various proposals that it had previously postponed. Women who will soon benefit. of this happy reform will they understand everything they owe to feminism!

Maria Vérone President of the French League for Women's Rights.