Why is Gisèle Pelicot, the woman at the center of the shocking gang rape case in France, being called a hero?

WARNING: This article may affect people who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who has been affected by it.

It’s not unusual for Gisèle Pelicot to be like this was greeted with applause While walking through the courthouse in the southern French city of Avignon.

In the midst of a horrific gang rape case against her husband and 50 other accused men, 72-year-old Pelicot feminist heroinspired thousands of marches, rallies and movements law reform France’s rape law includes consent for the first time.

Her husband, Dominique Pelicot, admitted to inviting dozens of strangers to rape her in their home over nearly 10 years after drugging her while she was unconscious.

Gisèle Pelicot was praised for her bravery, not only for surviving the ordeal but also for renouncing it. right to anonymityand he cool She stood firm in the witness box that it was the men who should be ashamed, not her.

And now Pelicot’s took a stand For the second time in the case that started on September 2, the woman’s words were shared in the media and social platforms. Even people online are petitioning Time magazine’s Person of the Year or Nobel peace prize.

Sexual assault experts and advocates change the discourse He spoke about rape, and Pelicot himself said he was “determined to see things change in this society.”

“I decided not to be ashamed. I didn’t do anything wrong… They’re the ones who should be ashamed,” Pelicot said Wednesday.

This flips the script on a history of victim blaming and shaming that’s often seen with victims of sexual assault, said Bailey Reid, CEO of The Spark Strategy, an Ottawa-based sexual violence prevention program.

“Survivors often feel like they should be ashamed of what happened to them and somehow blame themselves,” Reid told CBC News.

“By coming out publicly and calling out the perpetrators, Gisèle Pelicot shifts the shame of the victim, where patriarchy and rape culture place blame, onto the perpetrators,” said Ummni Khan, an associate professor of law and legal studies at Carleton. University in Ottawa.

“Instead, she asserts her strength as a survivor, essentially a hero, for women in France and around the world.”

Men who apologize are ‘trying to excuse themselves’

Over the past few weeks, the court heard that Pelicot and her husband of 50 years had been living in a house in Mazan, a small town in Provence. In 2020, a security agent caught Dominique Pelicot taking photos up women’s skirts at a supermarket, leading investigators to search her phone and computer.

They found thousands of photos and videos of men raping Pelicot while she was unconscious in their home. Police investigators found communications Dominique Pelicot sent on a messaging website commonly used by criminals, in which she invited men to sexually assault her wife.

Dominique Pelicot confessed his crime and claims that the 50 people on trial alongside him understood exactly what they were doing. The defendants’ ages range from 26 to 74.

“It challenges myths about sexual assault, including the belief that one is safe in one’s home and the idea that rapists are monsters rather than neighbors and community members,” said Khan, who researches gender, sexuality and law. “It shows incredible courage that he was willing to sit there and listen to the perpetrators as they tried to make excuses.”

Despite the video evidence against them, at least 35 of the defendants denied the rape charges, claiming Dominique Pelicot tricked them into believing they were participating in a sex game or that his wife was pretending to be asleep. Only a few people admitted to raping Pelicot, and some apologized; Pelicot does not accept this.

“They’re trying to excuse themselves by apologizing,” Pelicot said Wednesday. he said.

He also expressed how “incredibly violent” it was for him to hear so many of the defendants at the trial say they thought he either admitted to the rapes or pretended to sleep.

“For me, they are rapists, they remain rapists. Rape is rape… Of course, today I do not feel responsible for anything. Today, first of all, I am a victim… We need to promote rape culture in society.”

Husband’s approval makes the case unique

Tanya Couch, co-founder of the advocacy group Survivor Safety Matters and a sexual assault survivor herself, told CBC News that Pelicot is absolutely a hero and agrees that allowing her story to be so public was an incredible act of sensitivity.

“Without his courageous and selfless act, we would not have had this insight into how these ‘normal’ men behave behind closed doors,” said Couch, who lives in the Greater Toronto Area.

But for Pelicot, he emphasized, this kind of public support and coming together is not the experience of most survivors. She said there were two factors that set Pelicot’s case apart from many other sexual assault cases: police evidence and her husband’s corroboration of her story.

“The basic point is that women are not believed,” Couch said.

Last year, French authorities registered 114,000 victims of sexual violence, including more than 25,000 reported rapes. However, experts there say this: Many rapes go unreported due to lack of concrete evidence: Approximately 80 percent of women do not file a criminal complaint, and 80 percent of those who do see their cases dropped before an investigation is opened.

In Canada, most sexual assaults are not reported to the police. According to the Ministry of Justice. It is stated that the rate of sexual assault reported to the police increased by 38 percent between 2017 and 2022 Statistics Canada. In 2022, only 31 percent of sexual assault cases were handled with charges laid or recommended by police.

That year, 10,028 cases of sexual assault were classified by police in Canada as “insufficient evidence to lay charges or make recommendations”; This represents 30 percent of all police-reported sexual assaults by 2024. Statistics Canada report.

“The public is emboldened to support Gisèle because her husband also confirmed her actions. If he had said that Gisèle consented to this, that she was playing along, as most men accused of sexual assault do, we wouldn’t have had this conversation,” Couch said. “This would be another case of ‘he said, she said’.”

Reid, of The Spark Strategy, said she believes every survivor of sexual violence is incredibly brave — whether they choose to tell anyone or not — and that while Pelicot’s messages challenging shame and stigma are powerful, it’s important to support and believe survivors. .

“If we all started with this simple step, we could all be feminist heroes,” she said.

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