Protests outside the Paris criminal court, in Lyon and elsewhere highlighted how Gisèle Pelicot’s courage to speak out about her ordeal inspires people in France and beyond, even as they were horrified by the scale and the brutality of the abuse she suffered over the course of a decade.
Since the September 2 start of the extraordinary trial, during which Ms. Pelicot faced 51 of her alleged rapists, she has been praised for her composure and her decision to keep the hearings public, after the court initially suggested that they be held behind closed doors.
“She decided to make this trial an emblematic trial,” said Elsa Labouret, one of the Parisian demonstrators and spokesperson for the “Dare to Feminism!” women’s group.
“Victims don’t have to do what she did. They have the right to have their anonymity protected. This is not necessarily a duty for any victim. But what she decided to do is very, very important, because we can no longer ignore the violence that some men can resort to,” she said.
The demonstrators denounced what they consider to be a laxity of French justice regarding sexual violence and the fear of being raped and attacked which, according to them, harass women on a daily basis.
On the signs they held up, we could read: “Shame must change sides”, “Stop the denial”, “Not your punching ball” and “We are all Gisèle. Are you all Dominique???”.
Dominique Pelicot admitted during the trial to having repeatedly drugged his wife for almost a decade without her knowing and inviting dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious in their bed.
He told the court he had also raped Gisele and that the 50 other men also on trial knew exactly what they were doing. She has been divorced since her arrest. The trial is expected to last until December.
The accused are between 26 and 74 years old. Many of them deny raping Gisèle Pelicot, saying her then-husband manipulated them or that they thought she was consenting.
“You never know who is a rapist or who is a monster. It could be your neighbor, it could be anyone,” said Khalil Ndiaye, a student who came to demonstrate in Paris.
“It’s really disgusting to think that it could be people that you know, people that you see every day who, like, could do things like that.”
He said he considered Gisèle Pelicot an icon.
“Because in her pain, she decided not to give up and not to give in,” he said. She decided to fight. And we are all here today because she fights and she inspires us to fight too.”
