How modest 72-year-old French woman is now global symbol for fight against sexual violence

Gisele Pelicot acknowledges applause as she leaves the courtroom in Avignon during the trial of her former partner Dominique Pelicot, who is accused of drugging her for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her (Picture: Christophe Simon)Gisele Pelicot acknowledges applause as she leaves the courtroom in Avignon during the trial of her former partner Dominique Pelicot, who is accused of drugging her for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her (Picture: Christophe Simon)
Gisele Pelicot acknowledges applause as she leaves the courtroom in Avignon during the trial of her former partner Dominique Pelicot, who is accused of drugging her for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her (Picture: Christophe Simon) | AFP via Getty Images
Over a decade, Gisele Pelicot was drugged by her then partner so she could be raped by men he invited to their home in France

The power of 72-year-old Gisele Pelicot is that she is the very definition of nondescript. There are Gisele Pelicots across every town, city and village in France, and here in Scotland.

Older women, smartly but not expensively dressed. Short hair in a simple bob, carefully dyed, probably at home. Cross-body bag to hold smartphone and purse. Quick to smile, but confident in her own opinions. No patience left for fools, but an abundance of love for her family and friends. Grandmother. Aunt. Sister. Former colleague. Mother. Wife. And now, national hero.

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In a week dominated by powerful men revealed as sexual abusers, Pelicot stands out as a beacon of hope. US rapper and music executive Sean ‘Diddy’ Coombs cowers in jail, charged with sex trafficking and other offences. The late Mohamed Al Fayed, the billionaire boss of Harrods, is accused of multiple rapes and sexual assaults, allegedly covered up by the store’s management. And one of the most trusted men on television, former BBC news anchor Huw Edwards, pled guilty to making indecent images of children, including two videos featuring a child aged between seven and nine.

Former partner’s confession

As Edwards’ defence tried to explain his actions by arguing that he had low self-esteem, feeling “something of an outsider at the BBC” because he had not got into Oxford University, Gisele Pelicot had to listen to her husband of 50 years admit that, over a ten-year period, he had drugged her, then invited scores of men to rape her while she lay unconscious and he filmed the attacks. Dominique Pelicot told the court on Tuesday: "I am a rapist like the others in this room. They all knew, they cannot say the contrary.”

In an act of contrition far, far too late, he said his wife “did not deserve this”. “I loved her well for 40 years and badly for ten," he said.

Gisele Pelicot acknowledges applause as she leaves the courtroom in Avignon during the trial of her former partner Dominique, who is accused of drugging her over a ten-year period and inviting strangers to rape her (Picture: Christophe Simon)Gisele Pelicot acknowledges applause as she leaves the courtroom in Avignon during the trial of her former partner Dominique, who is accused of drugging her over a ten-year period and inviting strangers to rape her (Picture: Christophe Simon)
Gisele Pelicot acknowledges applause as she leaves the courtroom in Avignon during the trial of her former partner Dominique, who is accused of drugging her over a ten-year period and inviting strangers to rape her (Picture: Christophe Simon) | AFP via Getty Images

Pelicot could have asked that the trial of her former partner and the 50 men accused of raping her be held in private. Instead, she insisted that it be public, to shift “the shame” onto the accused instead of the survivor, which is all too often the case in rape trials. “I am doing this in the name of all those women who may never be recognised as victims,” she said.

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We are all Gisele

When a defence lawyer asked her on Wednesday, “don’t you have tendencies that you are not comfortable with?”, her voicing breaking, Pelicot replied – not just for herself, but for every woman and girl who has survived sexual violence – “I’m not even going to answer this question, which I find insulting. I understand why victims of rape don’t press charges. We really spill everything out into the open to humiliate the victim.”

Little wonder then that Pelicot has become a feminist hero across France, and far beyond. Last weekend, thousands of women took to the streets in at least 30 cities to proclaim, “On es tous-te Gisele” (We are all Gisele). Campaigners called for society to take a “leap forward” and demanded a new, wide-ranging law “against sexist and sexual violence”.

Le Monde newspaper reported that in France, 94 per cent of rape complaints are closed without any action being taken and 91 per cent of rapes are committed by someone the victim knows. In Scotland, the picture is eerily similar, with only 6.6 per cent of reported rapes resulting in a prosecution, and only half of those ending in a conviction.

Ordinary men

One of the most common placards held up during the demonstrations in support of Pelicot states: “Not all men but always a man.” Women who speak out against sexual violence are all too often accused of being “men-haters”. This is simply not the case. Most women have wonderful men in their lives – their husbands, sons, brothers, fathers, colleagues. But far too many women will have a story to tell of sexual abuse and violent assault.

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Dominique Pelicot and the 50 men who stand accused with him are, like Gisele, distinctive only in their ordinariness. They range in age from 26 to 68 years old. They are from all walks of life: firefighters, labourers, journalists. The website that he used to ‘advertise’ his wife had 500,000 visitors a month before it was shut down last year.

As Céline Piques of feminist organisation Osez le Féminisme points out, the case demolishes the myth that rapists are psychopaths. She says the men “raped because they were sure of their impunity”.

Men must take responsibility

And her assertion was proved when the first of the 50 defendants gave evidence on Thursday. Lionel Rodriguez, a 44-year-old supermarket worker, said he had convinced himself that the attacks on Gisele Pelicot were a sex game. “I didn’t ask myself too many questions,” he explained.

The trial is set to last until December, and no matter the verdict, Gisele Pelicot will go down in history as the true face of courage. She deserves the Légion d'Honneur, France’s highest honour. She has already won the love and admiration of women across the world.

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But her bravery will be for nothing if men do not start to take responsibility for their sex. Male sexual abuse and violence – whether it is perpetrated by the face of the BBC or by the man next door – is endemic in our society. History shows it always has been. But does that mean we are condemned to a future where sexual violence continues to be an accepted fact of life?

Gisele Pelicot, a 72-year-old grandmother who has suffered the worst betrayal imaginable, had the fortitude to speak out, not just for herself but for women and girls everywhere. Now we need men to show the same courage.

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