Impressed by the “courage” of Gisèle Pelicot, drugged by her husband and then raped by dozens of men on trial in Avignon, thousands of people demonstrated in France on Saturday in support of victims of sexual violence, so that “the shame changes sides”.
“We are all Gisèle”, “rapist we see you, victim we believe you”, “you are not alone”, chanted regularly more than a thousand demonstrators gathered in Paris, Place de la République.
In Marseille, several hundred people – more than 1,000 according to the organizers – gathered in front of the courthouse, hanging a banner “So that shame changes sides.”
At the other end of France, in Rennes, 200 to 400 people held placards with the same slogan: “protect your daughter, educate your son”, “Gisèle we love you”.
The call to gather was launched with a poster showing the face of Gisèle Pelicot, with a bob cut and round glasses, drawn by the Belgian graphic designer “Aline Dessine” with 2.5 million subscribers on Tik Tok.
Because by accepting that the trial of her husband and the fifty men he had recruited on the internet to rape her while she was unconscious, be public, this 71-year-old woman has raised a powerful wave of support for victims of rape and sexual assault.
– “Extremely courageous victim” –
“It took a lot of courage but it was fundamental, it allowed her to see the faces of her husband but also of all the others, to see that they were not marginal people but ‘good fathers'”, underlines Justine Imbert, 34, who came to demonstrate in Marseille with her six-year-old daughter.
“It was very important that she was there too. She has always been aware of this. What Gisèle Pelicot is doing is also to change things for my daughter later on,” adds Justine.
“We are faced with a victim who is extremely powerful, extremely courageous, who shows her face, who refused to go behind closed doors and who asks that the whole world have its eyes fixed on this case, so we are here to highlight it and to ask that justice be done”, also underlines Elsa Labouret, spokesperson for Osez le féminisme! who demonstrated in Paris, Place de la République.
“We hope that this case sets a precedent for the management of sexist and sexual violence in the future,” she adds.
Because everywhere, the demonstrators expressed the wish that these subjects would no longer be taboo, while in another recent affair, accusations of sexual assault that had been kept quiet for a long time have also targeted Abbé Pierre since July.
The trial of Dominique Pelicot and his 50 co-accused of the Mazan rapes must push society and public authorities to act, for the demonstrators.
“This high-profile trial will allow us to talk about it, to raise awareness,” hopes Martine Ragon, 74, a retiree, demonstrating in Marseille to “denounce rape culture.”
“We must support women who are treated like this. When we hear certain testimonies, we wonder how a man can treat a woman like this,” says Gérard Etienne, 75, Martine’s partner.
“When I read the story, I felt disgusted, even disgusted at being a man (…) I hope there will be real condemnations, real examples,” Stéphane Boufferet, 26, an agricultural worker who demonstrated with around 200 people in Clermont-Ferrand, shouting “Support Gisèle and Caroline” Pelicot, told AFP.
Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Fondation des femmes, reiterated in Paris the call by feminist organisations for a “comprehensive law against sexist and sexual violence” which would include 95 measures, such as “a systematic investigation of those involved as soon as a complaint is filed” or “training judges of departmental criminal courts”, she listed.
And he added: “We estimated that at least three billion in total would be needed to act on the issue of sexual violence, 3 billion is not even 0.5% of the state budget, 0.5% of the state budget to save lives.”
bur-iw/mpm
