It’s easy to forget that in the picturesque Provence region of France The trial continues against 51 men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot, 71, was attacked at least 200 times over a 10-year period by dozens of strangersinvited by her husband Dominique Pelicot, who drugged her with a powerful anxiolytic in her food.
It’s easy because we want to forget the horrors committed by Dominique Pelicot and his accomplices, labeling Pelicot as “the Monster of Mazan” and trusting that it is a creepy but isolated case, that could only happen in a lost town. It is difficult for many men and women to follow the case when some media treat it sporadically and in a misogynistic way; the british newspaper, The TelegraphFor examplewent so far as to describe the victim’s brave decision to forgo a closed-door trial as “a public revenge” against her rapists.
However, we have to pay attention to the Avignon court because it has many messages for all of us. In an act of tremendous courage, Gisèle Picot has waived his right to anonymity and a closed-door trial to send the message more importantly to other victims of sexual violencemen and women: “You are not alone” he said, encouraging them to report their attackers. They are the rapists who have to feel ashamednot the victims. We all have to fight against “rape culture”, the impunity of many rapists, he rightly stated.
“How is it possible that in France in 2024 a woman can still go through what Gisèle Pelicot has been through for at least 10 years?” asked Antoine Camus, one of the victim’s lawyers.in his final arguments. “How can you find, in France, in 2024, 50 individuals within a 50 kilometer radius willing to take advantage sexually, without exchanging any words, of a body that seems dead and that had to be turned manually to move it?”
Among these men are normal and respectable gentlemen of the town: a firefighter, a journalist, neighbors, fathers and husbands (one left his wife in childbirth to go to the Pelicots’ house). And of all ages, between 26 and 74 years old. Police believe there were at least 30 morewho remain free; There were some men who rejected Dominique Pelicot’s offer, but they did not denounce him.
Despite the fact that Gisèle appears in the videos unconscious and sometimes snoring and that her husband has contacted them through a web page in a chat called “Against his will”35 of the 50, deny having committed rape, some saying that they were manipulated by Dominique and even that they had Gisèle’s permission through her husband.
Same as the process against “The Pack” led to pressure for a change in the law in Spain to include explicit consent, There are those who believe that French law will change as a result of the trial. “Gisèle Pelicot carries the message of the need to have consent, which is already in the law because Absence of consent is the definition of rapebut it is true that the word consent is not in the (French) criminal code literally,” Béatrice Zavarro, Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, told FranceInter.
Fighting against impunity for rapists goes beyond a change in the law. Who in that town of 6,000 peoples knew about the rapes and the photos of women placed on pornography pages without their consent? is asked in the program The Debate on France24chain where I work.
It is brutal that no doctor or gynecologist suspected anything strange despite the deterioration of Gisèle Pelicot’s health.
We must never forget the Pelicot case. In the midst of the hangover of November 25, in the week of the elimination of violence against women, the majority of crimes are committed by family members, as the UN points out. They happen inside our homes, but Outside of them there are professionals who can and should help.