Her husband orchestrating her sexual abuse by strangers could have broken her. But by standing up to her abusers in court and demanding they be ashamed, France’s Gisele Pelicot has become a feminist champion.

More than three months of sometimes gruelling hearings, including graphic video evidence, are set to culminate when judges hand down sentences on Thursday.

When the trial of her now ex-husband and 50 other defendants opened in the French city of Avignon in September, journalists saw a woman with short red hair, hiding behind sunglasses.

The main victim in the case that shocked France was a grandmother whose life partner had admitted to drugging her for almost a decade so he and dozens of strangers he recruited online could rape her while unconscious.

But then Gisele Pelicot waived her right to anonymity and demanded the public be allowed access to the trial to raise awareness about drug use to commit abuse.

She won hearts across France and abroad, and triggered a flurry of art in her honour, after she said it was her abusers — not her — who should be ashamed.

“I wanted all women who are rape victims to say to themselves: ‘Mrs Pelicot did it, so we can do it too’,” she told the court in October.

“It’s not us who should feel shame, but them,” she added, referring to perpetrators.

As news of the trial spread, protests erupted across France to show support and fans started cheering her or even greeting her with flowers when she arrived in court.

And over the trial’s course, Gisele Pelicot shed her dark sunglasses.

‘Rape is rape’

Ahead of the verdicts, the 72-year-old has made it onto the BBC’s 100 Women list for 2024, alongside fellow mass rape survivor and Nobel Prize winner Nadia Murad and Hollywood actor Sharon Stone.

Pelicot in August obtained a divorce from her husband, who has confessed to the abuse after meticulously documenting it with photos and videos.

She has moved away from the southern town of Mazan where, in her own words, her husband Dominique Pelicot treated her like “a piece of meat” or a “rag doll” for years.

She now uses her maiden name, but during the trial has asked the media to use her former name as a married woman — the one passed on to some of her seven grandchildren.

In mid-September, she dropped her usual reserve to talk of her humiliation and her anger towards several lawyers who had made insinuations about her ordeal.

“Rape is rape,” she said.

In October, she said she was “broken” but determined to change society.

She again told the court last month it was time for a “macho, patriarchal” society to shift its attitude towards rape.

She said the marathon hearings were an examination of the “cowardice” of the men who took part in the assaults.

Many had argued they thought they were taking part in a couple’s fantasy after consent by proxy through her husband.

She expressed her anger that none of her abusers alerted the police about the rapes, which occurred between 2011 and 2020.

Several took part in the abuse six times.

Fifty men besides her 72-year-old ex-husband are on trial, including one who did not rape Gisele Pelicot but repeatedly abused his own wife with Dominique Pelicot’s help.

Several of the co-defendants have admitted to rape.

But more than 20 other suspects remain at large as investigators had not managed to identify them before the start of the mass trial.

Memory lapses

The daughter of a member of the military, Gisele Pelicot was born on December 7, 1952 in Germany, returning to France with her family when she was five.

When she was nine, her mother, aged just 35, died of cancer.

Her older brother Michel died of a heart attack aged 43, before her 20th birthday.

She met Dominique Pelicot, her future husband and rapist, in 1971.

She had dreamt of becoming a hairdresser but instead studied to be a typist. After a few years temping, she joined France’s national electricity company EDF, ending her career in a logistics service for its nuclear power plants.

At home, she looked after her three children, then seven grandchildren.

After she retired, she enjoyed walking and singing in a local choir.

Only when the police caught her husband filming up women’s skirts in a supermarket in 2020 did she find out the true reason behind her troubling memory lapses.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Marseille, France:

Walking into court each day with her head held high, the ex-wife of a Frenchman on trial for orchestrating her mass rape in her own bed for almost a decade has become a feminist icon.

With her now trademark auburn bob and dark glasses, 71-year-old Gisele Pelicot has become a figurehead in the battle against the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.

Her life was shattered in 2020 when she discovered that her partner of five decades had for years been secretly administering her large doses of tranquilisers to rape her and invite dozens of strangers to join him.

But she has decided not to hide and demanded the trial of Dominique Pelicot, 71, and 50 co-defendants since September 2 be open to the public because, as she has said through one of her lawyers, it should be up to her alleged abusers – not her – to be ashamed.

“It’s a way of saying… shame must change sides,” her attorney Stephane Babonneau said as the trial opened.

Since then, feminist activists have used her stylised portrait by Belgian artist Aline Dessine, daubed with the words “Shame is changing sides”, to show support and call for protests.

The artist with 2.5 million followers on TikTok has given up all rights to the image.

‘VERY BRAVE’

Outside the courtroom in the southern town of Avignon on Friday, protester Nadege Peneau said she was full of admiration for the trial’s main plaintiff.

“What she’s doing is very brave,” she said.

“She’s speaking up for so many children and women, and even men” who have been abused, she added.

Gisele Pelicot in August obtained a divorce from her husband, who has confessed to the abuse after meticulously documenting it with photos and videos.

She has moved away from the southern town of Mazan where, in her own words, for years he treated her like “a piece of meat” or a “rag doll”.

She now uses her maiden name, but during the trial has asked the media to use her former name as a married woman.

Her lawyer Antoine Camus said she had transformed from a devoted wife and retiree, who loved walks and choir singing, into a woman in the seventies ready for a battle.

“I will have to fight till the end,” she told the press on September 5, in her only public statement outside court in the first days of the four-month trial.

“Obviously it’s not an easy exercise and I can feel attempts to trap me with certain questions,” she added calmly.

‘NOT IN VAIN’

The daughter of a member of the military, Gisele Pelicot was born on December 7, 1952 in Germany, returning to France with her family when she was five.

When she was only nine, her mother, aged just 35, died of cancer.

“In my head, I was already 15, I was already a little woman,” she said, describing growing up “without much love”.

Her older brother Michel died of a heart attack aged 43, before her 20th birthday.

She has said she was never one to publicly show emotions.

“In the family, we hide tears and we share laughter,” one of her lawyers had reported her as saying.

She met Dominique Pelicot, her future husband and rapist, in 1971.

She had dreamt of becoming a hairdresser but instead studied to be a typist. After a few years temping, she joined France’s national electricity company EDF, ending her career in a logistics service for its nuclear power plants.

At home, she looked after her three children, then seven grandchildren, and did a little gymnastics.

Only when the police caught her husband filming up women’s skirts in a supermarket in 2020 did she find out the true reason behind her troubling memory lapses.

Camus, her lawyer, said his client “never wanted to be a role model”.

“She just wants all this not to be in vain,” he said.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)