Most summer vacations for teenage girls involve getting a job at the local Dairy Queen or tempting skin cancer at the beach. But in France, hundreds of girls disappear each summer when they are sent abroad and forced into marriages with men they’ve never met. Most of the victims are Muslim and of Asian, African, or Middle Eastern descent, so the government has generally considered it a cultural or religious issue. But since other European countries like England have governmental units that track down women who are forced into marriages in their countries of origin, we’re happy that France is just starting to keep up with the times. The French school system is working to set up an alert system for these girls who never return to school in the fall and last year they published a guide to help officials suss out forced marriages. The government is even making efforts to protect girls who want to annul their marriages. [Reuters]

In a controversial move, the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that judges can force Muslim women to take off their headscarves in court. The law says they can exercise “reasonable control over the appearance of parties and witnesses” so that the “demeanor of such persons may be observed and assessed by the fact-finder and ensure the accurate identification.” Translation of the legal mumbo jumbo: they have to take off their headscarves so the judge can be sure they’re actually who they say they are.

Muslim model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, has been sentenced to six lashes with a cane for drinking beer in Malaysia. Amnesty International tried to get authorities to revoke the sentence but Shukarno doesn’t want help. She said, “I want to respect the law.” She wants to turn other Muslims away from alcohol and even asked that authorities beat her in public!

British journalist Liz Jones wore a burqa for a week and chronicled her experiences in “My Week Wearing a Burka: Just a Few Yards of Black Fabric, but It Felt Like a Prison.” Her inspiration? Lubna Hussein, the Sudanese woman who will receive 40 lashes for wearing pants in public.

We’ve all dated cocky guys, but Mohammed Bello takes the cake! About a month ago, we here at The Frisky were befuddled by the story of a Nigerian man with 86 wives.  At the apparently arrogant age of 84, Mohammed Bello was still fathering children and seen as a preacher and healer to his wives, most of whom are in their twenties, and his brood of 170 kids. His compound has been a constant source of aggravation and embarrassment to the Muslim population of his own country, who see him as a crazy cult leader. In fact, he’s even been receiving death threats. Since even most Islamic fundamentalists believe you can only have up to four wives, the state has ordered Bello to divorce at least 82 of them by this Sunday or face exile from Nigeria. So what does Bello’s camp have to say in his defense?  Spokesman for the self-proclaimed shaman, Mohammed Tahir, counterattacked with, “He is not going to divorce any of his wives. Rather he is going to marry more.”  Boo-yah! It’s on!  [Reuters]

While three sister wives may seem like one big, happy family on Big Love, try having 86! Mohammed Bello Abubakar, an 84-year-old Muslim preacher in Nigeria, has married more women than years he’s been alive and most of his wives are, surprisingly, in their twenties. Can you imagine trying to feed the 170 children he’s fathered?!  Neither he nor his wives work, but they somehow manage to pay for the $915 (26.5 lbs) worth of rice they consume each day.  Needless to say, the Islamic Authorities in his home state consider him a cult leader, but he fancies himself a shaman who doesn’t believe in modern medicine. Abubakar credits his healing powers with his ability to attract so many women. He told the BBC, “I don’t go looking for them, they come to me. I will consider the fact that God has asked me to do it and I will just marry them… That is why I have been able to control 86 of them.” Um, what a romantic? [BBC]

Lately virginity has seemed trendier than skinny pants. But just like the slim slacks, chastity also doesn’t fit everyone’s style.  When our cool Catherine posted about Australian FHM’s poll where 28% of men said they hoped to marry virgins, we all shrugged—a guy can dream can’t he? We here at The Frisky have been enjoying the sexual revolution, and we thought the dudes of the world were too. Alas, no. This week, a French Court annulled a Muslim couple’s marriage because the bride wasn’t a virgin on her wedding night. When the man, in his 30’s (?!), didn’t have blood-stained sheets from his wedding bed to show his family, they decided to take her to court. While plenty of girls lose their hymen nowadays from activities like gymnastics, the bride confessed she had lied because she didn’t think he would marry her if she told the truth. So, under an antiquated French law that protects the “essential quality” insisted upon by the groom, the marriage was null and void. Boo! This verdict has enraged feminists around and the world as well as the Prime Minister of France and the rector at a Mosque in Paris who all see the ruling as reverting women to being commodities for men. Although, something good has come out of all this—this poor woman was saved from a lifetime sentence with a seriously unrealistic and demanding husband. [Yahoo News]

Egypt has appointed its first female official to certify marriages and divorces. Amal Soliman applied for the “maazun” position because it would allow her to work close to her home and three children, not because she wanted to start a debate, which she has. “It is wrong to have a woman in this position,” one man said. “My sheikh tells me that if we are to get married that we must avoid her because she can’t do the job.” Part of the issue some people have with her appointment is that women aren’t allowed to enter mosques or read Quaranic verses when they’re menstruating. Amal says she plans to conduct home visits during those times and will also have an assistant who will be able to enter the mosque when she cannot. Ten others, all men, applied for the job, but Justice Minister Mamdouh Marei said Amal was chosen based “on her abilities rather than on her gender.”