On the list of people honoured ahead of Bastille Day this year, one name seemed familiar. Gisèle Pelicot.
If that doesn’t ring a bell, let me fill you in. Gisèle is a 72‑year‑old retiree from Mazan, France who endured a nightmare that sounds like fiction. For nearly a decade (2011–2020), her husband Dominique drugged her, raped her, recorded his attacks in a folder ominously labeled “ABUSES,” and invited dozens of men at least 72 identified, about 92 known attacks, from chat rooms to rape her while she was unconscious
If that doesn’t ring a bell, let me fill you in. Gisèle is a 72‑year‑old retiree from Mazan, France who endured a nightmare that sounds like fiction. For nearly a decade (2011–2020), her husband Dominique drugged her, raped her, recorded his attacks in a folder ominously labeled “ABUSES,” and invited dozens of men at least 72 identified, about 92 known attacks, from chat rooms to rape her while she was unconscious
Gisèle waived her right to anonymity. She made the trial public. And she faced her rapists in the court.
In her own words:
“I want all women who have been raped to say: Madame Pelicot did it, I can too. I want shame to swap sides.”
Politicians and feminists in France and across Europe applauded her bravery. President Macron called her “a trailblazer whose dignity and courage moved and inspired France and the world” Even Spain’s PM and Germany’s chancellor praised her—honoring her voice as a call to reroute shame from victims to perpetrators
In December, Dominique was sentenced to 20 years which is the maximum sentencing for aggravated rape. Fifty other men received prison terms of 3–15 years. The sheer scale of the abuse and her husband’s admission that he saw himself as a rapist, shocked France
She didn’t owe the world her story. But she gave it anyway.
A memoir is coming early next year, in her own words. And when it drops, I’ll be reading it. Because I want to hear her voice. I want to sit with it. I want to understand what it means to survive and speak in a world that still tries to shame you for both.
As usual the comments are open.
