Paris - French Justice Minister Rachida Dati on Monday ordered the public prosecutor of the northern city of Douai to appeal a court decision to annul a marriage because the bride had misled her husband into believing she was a virgin, French media reported on Monday.

In a statement, the justice ministry justified the decision by saying, "This private affair goes beyond the relationship of two people and concerns all of the citizens of our country, especially the women."

In April, a court in Lille had annulled the marriage on the demand of the husband. A Muslim like his now ex-wife, he had decided to end the marriage the morning after the wedding, which took place on July 6, 2006, when he discovered on the wedding night that, contrary to what she had told him, his wife was not a virgin.

The court decision, which was made public last week, provoked a storm of controversy in France, with all groups and political parties denouncing it.

The former presidential candidate for the Socialist Party, Segolene Royal, said that to consider that virginity "is an essential personal quality for women but not for men is a strong sign of regression for all of today's women, especially the young."

The junior minister for urban policies, Fadela Amara, called the decision "a veritable scandal, a real fatwa against the emancipation of women. At first I thought that the verdict had been handed down in Kandahar."

However, Dati initially supported the judgement, saying on Friday that the annulment "is also a means to protect the person who perhaps wants to get out of a marriage, because I think that this young girl probably also wishes to separate soon."

According to the web site of the weekly Le Point, the magistrates who decided to annul the marriage did so because the wife had agreed with the husband's wish to end the marriage.

"It is therefore a judicial non-event," said one attorney who had discussed the case with the judges.

According to the text of the judgment, the marriage was annulled because "the young wife hid the truth from her fiance because she was convinced he would never have married her had he known the truth."

The judicial basis for the decision was a law of 1868 which was used against males who lied about a criminal record or wives who had worked as prostitutes. (dpa)