France struggles to integrate immigrants

Mons-en-Baroeul: It was a match made in heaven, and both families approved. The groom was a computer engineer, the bride a nursing student. Children of Moroccan immigrants, they had thrived in French society and seemed at home with its ways.

But on their wedding night, the groom discovered that his bride was not a virgin. He stormed out of the bridal chamber. His father, outraged, said the marriage was off. That same night, he returned the young woman to her family.

Drama

The drama in this middle-class suburb, on the eastern edge of Lille in northern France, could have remained a private affair - that is what its main protagonists wanted. But instead, it set off a legal struggle with strong political undertones and an explosion of outrage by media-savvy activists in Paris. In the end, it became a parable for the strain France has encountered in absorbing the more than 5 million Muslims, who have made this country their home.

French leaders are recognising that the country needs to do more to promote integration of Muslims and children of immigrants. President Nicolas Sarkozy named Yazid Sabeg, a businessman born to Algerian immigrants, to head a government department assigned to get more minorities into politics.

- Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service