Gisele Pelicot, the figure at the center of one of the most publicized mass rape trials in France, took her powerful and emotional testimony to the courtroom to put into perspective how the shame of rape ought to be reserved for perpetrators and not victims. This 57-year-old grandmother related in a trembling voice how she was drugged by her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, who then invited several men to rape her.
During the high-charged drama during the proceedings, Pelicot said it was now time for victims to come out and confidently said, “Mrs. Pelicot did it; we can do it too.” She rightly said that the rapists do not distinguish between any class difference, and it’s the societal stigma on the victims which needs to be confronted.
She spoke about her former husband with incredulity at his betrayal, remembering times when she thought he was embracing her through her illness, which turned out to be caused by him. “How could you have brought these strangers into my bedroom?” she asked, showing the depth of her anguish.
Pelicot, now viewed by many as a feminist icon, explained that she came forward “to change things in society.” The court was reminded that Dominique Pelicot had a record of wrongdoing: in 2020, he was caught filming up women’s skirts. Gisele noted that she would have left him if she had known about such offenses from ten years earlier and regretted that she had kept silent for that decade.
Her testimony also turned to the harrowing content of videos played in the videos in which she’s heard pleading for the assaults to stop. “It was rape,” she insisted when questioned about consent.
Completely destroyed,” Pelicot candidly told the court of rapists lurking within families and friendships. The woman had to bear an intense inquiry about her personal life, including her extramarital relations. Some had alleged that was the motive leading her husband to do what he did.
The popular trial, which is widely followed in France and abroad, will last until December, and Gisele Pelicot is expected to testify further.
