Frankfurt am Main, Oct 7. (dpa/GNA) – Gisèle Pelicot, the French rape survivor who became a feminist icon, says she wants to meet her former husband and abuser “at some point, no matter what,” the 73-year-old told the Frankfurt Book Fair on Wednesday.
However, she added, “I don’t think I’ll get any explanations or answers.”
For nearly 10 years, Gisèle Pelicot was repeatedly drugged, abused and offered up to strangers for rape by her then-husband.
In 2024, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The court sentenced 50 men, most of whom were co-defendants charged with aggravated rape, to prison terms ranging from 3 to 15 years.
She said she had been virtually unconscious for 10 years. “I lived as if under general anaesthesia for many hours, and I had to reclaim that life,” she said.
For a long time, she could not watch the videos of the crimes. Once she did, she said that she was unable to register what she saw or recognize herself. I was like “a rag doll.” “You cannot begin to describe what I saw. It is barbaric.”
Despite all that, she says that she was able to trust and love again. “I’ve met a wonderful man. You really must grant yourself the right to love because that is the most beautiful thing in life. But I’m also on my guard.”
Pelicot became a feminist role model in France, due to her resolute demeanour and her decision to have the trial held in public.
Her memoir, “A Hymn to Life: Shame has to Change Sides,” (Et la joie de vivre) was published in February.
“I want to emphasize that it is not the victim who should feel ashamed.” When asked what was wrong with society, particularly in light of the recent case of abuse at the elite US university Cornell, Pelicot said she believed that women should take on more power and be less afraid. “We must educate young children, especially the boys, that a woman is not an object. They must respect women.”
GNA