Question 15401 — family

Summary

Ms. Ersilia Soudais draws the attention of the Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister, responsible for equality between women and men and the fight against discrimination, to the situation of married women in the process of divorcing, who must wait months, even several years, for the final pronouncement of the judgment to be able to resume their birth name, thus remaining chained to the name of their spouse despite a separation already officially committed. In French law, the married name is in fact only a common name, each spouse legally retaining their birth name in the civil registry. Article 264 of the Civil Code only provides for the loss of this use following a divorce, leaving women in an intermediate period. This obligation, heavy to bear on a daily basis, often generates deep psychological suffering, leads to significant social and administrative difficulties and is particularly unbearable for women confronted with domestic violence, where maintaining the marital name constitutes additional symbolic violence. Women cannot be considered property of their husbands. They must be able to break, if they wish, with the name of their ex-spouse as soon as the divorce proceedings are officially opened, in order to fully regain their identity and autonomy. A reform allowing rapid freedom from the marital name would prevent women from continuing to have a name with which they refuse to continue to be associated. This would reduce the situations of suffering linked to the maintenance of this name after the effective separation, including in cases of violence where this symbol rekindles trauma and this would be in line with the developments towards real equality between spouses, initiated by the 2004 reform. This is why she wishes to know what measures are planned by the Government to change the applicable law so that the resumption of the birth name can take place from the official opening of the divorce procedure without waiting for the final judgment.

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