PORTRAIT. Mazan rapes: Gisèle Pelicot, victim who became a feminist icon and heroine in the fight against violence against women

When she entered, under a cloud of flashes, the precincts of the Vaucluse court on September 2, her gaze hidden behind dark glasses, Gisèle Pélicot was still only the nameless victim of a sordid affair of sexual violence. . A status that she will quickly surpass. “Feminist icon”. “Personality of the year”. “Heroin”. There is no longer a shortage of epithets to qualify it. By refusing the closed session normally offered to rape victims during the trial of her ex-husband and 51 co-defendants, Gisèle Pelicot entered the light to become a figure in the fight against sexual violence.

On September 5, the victim, her three children and her seven grandchildren officially renounced their anonymity: “Gisèle P.” as she was previously referred to in the press, becomes Gisèle Pelicot. “We will remember Madame Pélicot, not Monsieur. I want my grandchildren not to be ashamed of having this name,” she explains. The public then discovers this devoted wife, mother and grandmother, an ordinary retiree at the heart of an extraordinary affair.

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Faced with her tormentors, this 72-year-old woman will never lower her head. Confronted with the harrowing images of the rapes she suffered over a decade, she will not look away. Gisèle Pelicot may be a “destroyed” woman – “a field of ruins” inside – but her determination holds firm. She is there, day after day, in the courtroom. Because “shame must change sides”. And so that “all women victims of rape say to themselves ‘Madame Pelicot did it, we can do it'”.

Faced with her ex-husband, this “chic guy” with whom she shared 50 years of her life, Gisèle Pelicot denounces “a macho and patriarchal society”. “Humiliated” by the innuendoes of certain defense lawyers who insinuate that she could have consented to the rapes she suffered in an alleged libertine scenario, she does not back down: “I find that insulting, and I understand why rape victims don’t file complaints.

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An international “pop icon”

The monstrosity of the case and the impressive number of accused coming from all strata of society propelled the trial onto the international scene. His notoriety quickly crossed the walls of the Vaucluse criminal court and the borders of France. One hundred and sixty-six accredited media outlets, including seventy-six foreigners, jostle daily to enter the courtroom. Gisèle Pelicot’s face, always well-groomed red bob and round glasses, makes the front page of the biggest headlines in the press.

The new “pop icon”, whose look reminds the Anglo-Saxon press of that of fashion queen Anna Wintour, is tagged on walls and displayed on stickers. THE New York Times hails “a feminist heroine”. “No more shame” (no more shame), headlines the front page of Vogue Germany on the occasion of the Day to Combat Violence Against Women. For the German weekly The timeGisèle Pelicot became in the space of four months “the new icon of France”. The BBC included her in its ranking of the 100 most influential women of the year. The British public service is also preparing a documentary on the affair.

Daily, the septuagenarian enters the court to thunderous applause, accepting the bouquets of flowers handed to her. Sneaking through a guard of honor, she never fails to thank her supporters, giving them a smile from the corner of her lips. “Gisèle, the women thank you”, we can read on the walls of Avignon. Feminist activists salute her impressive courage. 18-30 year olds choose her as their “favorite personality” alongside the star of the Olympic Games, Léon Marchand.

One thing is certain, for Me Béatrice Zavarro, lawyer for her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, this trial will constitute “an essential episode in the evolution of the subject of rape”. With “a first level which is Gisèle Halimi (the lawyer who contributed to having rape recognized as a crime, editor’s note), and a second level which will be Gisèle Pelicot”. Mission accomplished therefore, for the one who pleads that “it is time that we change our outlook on rape”.