Regardless of the sentence, expected on Thursday 19 December in Avignon, southern France, Gisele Pelicot it is already a symbol.
Drugged and dazed by her then husband Dominique Pelicot, to have her raped by dozens of men whom she summoned via the Internet, Gisèle Pelicot, 72 years old, with the courage and strength to publicly denounce the horrors she suffered, has accomplished an extraordinary work, an example for all victims of violence and in general for all women.
The story of the rape of Mazanfrom the name of the place where the couple lived, not only shook France but toured the world, bringing to light the “chemical submission”as the jurisprudence calls it, to which the woman was subjected. The 50 accused of sexual assault are only a fraction of the men who raped her (others were not identified).
Dominique Pelicot planned and organized the rapes between 2011 and 2020. Her husband at the time secretly served Gisele Pelicot cocktails of drugs and sleeping pills and then abused her, documenting with videos and photos what he inflicted on her. In those years Dominique opened her door to more than fifty strangers, lured on forums and online chats, offering them Gisèle’s sleeping body each time. “I’m guilty of what I did, I ruined everything, I lost everything. I have to pay,” said Dominique Pelicot.
Gisèle Pelicot showed up at the hearings of the trial, which began in September, showing great dignity. A powerful gesture, an example for many women, even young ones, who do not have the strength to report. She listened to her ex-husband impassively
The prosecution asked for the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for her ex-husband. Against the other defendants accused of aggravated rape, the requests vary between 10 and 18 years, for only one the prosecution requests 4 years for “harassing” the victim.
In his indictment, the public prosecutor and his collaborators stated that “the crux” of the Mazan rape trial “is to fundamentally change the relationships between men and women.” At the end of the last hearing Gisèle Pelicot received long applause from the audience present. Gisèle, as all women in the world now call her, is mentioned in speeches, marches and feminist demonstrations, she was depicted in a work by the street artist Laika entitled ‘Smash the patriarchy’, together with Giulia Cecchettin, another symbol, unfortunately not alive, of male violence against women.
The daughter of Gisèle Pelicot, Caroline Darian (surname invented by merging the first names of his brothers, David and Florian) wrote a book about this horror entitled “And I stopped calling you dad”: in Italy it will be published on 18 February 2025.
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