On Saturday, thousands of people demonstrated in the streets of many French cities, calling for an end to rape and supporting the lead plaintiff in a shocking mass sexual assault prosecution.
Using her married identity, Gisele Pelicot has asked that the trial of her ex-husband and fifty other defendants, which began on September 2, be made public in order to bring attention to the consumption of narcotics.
Her boyfriend of around fifty years, Dominique Pelicot, has acknowledged that he drugged her for years in order to either rape her or see her being raped while sleeping by a number of strangers he found online.
France has been shocked by this case, particularly since several of the co-accused are seemingly regular guys who work regular jobs, and some of the suspects are still at large. In the French capital, a sizable gathering chanted, “We are all Gisele.” “Victim, we believe you, rapist, we see you.”
Activists in Marseille, a city in the south of France, put up a banner on the courthouse in the city, urging the accused offenders—not the victims—to feel guilty.
Through one of her attorneys, it echoed Gisele Pelicot’s own remarks, “Shame must change sides.” The 34-year-old Justine Imbert had arrived with her six-year-old kid.
