Thousands of people in France took to the streets this weekend to support Gisèle Pelicot, who decided to publicly betray her husband’s rape trial to draw attention to sexual violence in the country.
People across the country rallied in solidarity with a woman who had suffered violence at the hands of her husband for ten years. The case has horrified France, particularly as many of the accomplices are seemingly ordinary people with regular jobs, and several suspects remain at large.
Gisèle Pelicot, a woman in her early 70s, demanded that the trial of her ex-husband and 50 co-defendants, which began on 2 September, go public to raise awareness of the use of drugs to commit crimes.
The crime came to light when her now ex-husband Dominique, 71, who pleaded guilty to slipping drugs and raping his wife, found himself caught taking photos under women’s skirts in 2020. As part of the investigation, police found a USB stick with a file labelled “abuse” which included more than 20,000 photos and videos of assaults on his wife taken over a nine-year period, Common Dreams said.
In Marseille, activists hung a banner on the city courthouse, calling for shame on the alleged perpetrators, not the victims. “Shame must change sides,” it read, echoing Pelicot’s own words through one of her lawyers. In the western city of Rennes, a young woman held up a sign with the sentence “protect your daughters” crossed out. “Educate your son,” it read instead.
The case comes as the French film industry has also come under fire in recent years over allegations of sexual assault, including several against actor Gerard Depardieu. The 75-year-old actor has faced rape charges since 2020 and last month prosecutors demanded he go on trial. Among the protesters in Paris was Charlotte Arnoux, an actress who accused Depardieu of rape in 2018 when she was 22 and suffering from anorexia.
