France has passed a new law ending the concept of "conjugal rights," which claimed marriage meant a duty to have sex. The National Assembly approved a bill that adds a clause to the civil code. It states that living together does not create "an obligation for sexual relations." The law also bans using lack of sex as a ground for fault-based divorce. The bill's sponsor, Green MP Marie-Charlotte Garin, said, "By allowing such a right or duty to persist, we are collectively giving our approval to a system of domination and predation by husband on wife." She added, "Marriage cannot be a bubble in which consent to sex is regarded as definitive and for life." Currently, French law lists marriage duties as "respect, fidelity, support and assistance," but does not mention sexual rights. However, some judges have loosely interpreted "community of living" as including sex. In 2019, a woman lost a divorce case for withholding sex, but later the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) condemned France for this. The ECHR ruling last year made it impossible for divorce judges in France to use refusal of sex as fault. The new law confirms this change clearly. Feminists say the idea of wives having a "duty" for sex still exists in society and must be stopped. The famous 2024 Mazan trial showed how some men wrongly claimed consent because a woman's husband invited them, highlighting the issue of marital rape. In France, marital rape has been illegal since 1990. Since November 2023, the legal definition of rape was also updated to require "informed, specific, anterior and revocable" consent. Silence or no reaction is no longer seen as consent. This law marks a vital step to protect individual consent inside marriage and deny any forced sexual duties between spouses.