Entering court each day with her head held high, the ex-wife of a French man on trial for plotting to gang-rape her in his own bed for nearly a decade has become a feminist icon.
With her trademark brown bob and dark glasses, 71-year-old Gisele Pellicot has become a leading figure in the fight against drug use and sexual exploitation.
In 2020 her life was torn apart when she discovered that her partner of five decades had been secretly giving her large doses of tranquillisers for years so he could rape her and invite dozens of strangers to join him.
But she has decided not to go into hiding and has demanded that the trial against Dominique Pellicot, 71, and 50 co-defendants, scheduled to begin Sept. 2, be open to the public because, as she has said through one of her lawyers, the right to be shamed should be on her alleged abusers — not her.
“That’s one way of saying … shame has to change sides,” his attorney, Stephane Babonneau, said as the trial began.
Since then, feminist activists have used her stylized portrait, created by Belgian artist Aline Dessin, with the words “Changing the Side of Shame” written on it, to show support and call for protests.
The artist, who has 2.5 million followers on TikTok, has given up all rights to the image.
‘Very brave’
Nadège Peneau, a protester outside a courtroom in the southern city of Avignon on Friday, said she greatly admired the case’s lead plaintiff.
“What she is doing is a very brave thing,” he said.
Gisèle Pellicot arrives to attend court proceedings with her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau (right).
He added, “She is raising her voice for a lot of children, women and even men” who have been abused.
Gisele Pellicott divorced her husband in August, who has admitted to the abuse he suffered after carefully documenting it through photos and videos.
She has moved away from the southern city of Mazan, where, in her own words, for years her husband treated her like a “piece of meat” or a “rag doll.”
She now uses her maiden name, but during the trial she asked the media to use her old name as a married woman.
Her lawyer, Antoine Camus, said she had transformed from a devoted wife and retired woman who enjoyed walking and singing to a woman in her 70s who was ready for a fight.
Gisèle Pellicot leaves court following the trial of Pellicot’s former partner Dominique Pellicot.
“I must fight to the end,” he told the press on September 5, in his only public statement outside court in the first days of the four-month-long trial.
“Obviously this is no easy task and I can feel some of the questions are trying to trap me,” she said calmly.
‘Not in vain’
The daughter of a military member, Gisèle Pellicot was born in Germany on 7 December 1952, returning to France with her family when she was five years old.
When she was just nine years old, her 35-year-old mother died of cancer.
“In my mind, I was already 15, I was already a little woman,” she said, describing growing up “without any special love”.
His older brother Michel died of a heart attack at the age of 43, before his 20th birthday.
She said that she never displays her emotions in public.
One of his lawyers reported that he had said, “As a family we hide tears and make jokes.”
In 1971 she met her future husband and rapist Dominique Pellicot.
She dreamed of becoming a hairdresser, but instead studied to be a typist. After a few years of working temporary jobs, she joined EDF, France’s national electricity company, and ended her career working in logistics services for nuclear power plants.
At home she looked after her three children and then seven grandchildren and also did a bit of gymnastics.
It was only when the police caught her husband making videos up women’s skirts at a supermarket in 2020 that she realised the real reason behind her loss of memory.
Her lawyer Camus said his client “never wanted to be a role model”.
“She just wants all of this to not go to waste,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
