How one lady shook attitudes to rape in France

Warning: This story accommodates descriptions of sexual abuse.

Each morning, the queues started forming earlier than daybreak. Groups of girls – at all times girls – stood within the autumn chill on a pavement beside a busy ring highway, exterior Avignon’s glass and concrete courthouse.

They got here, day after day. Some introduced flowers. All needed to be in place to applaud Gisèle Pelicot as she walked, purposefully, up the steps and thru the glass doorways. Some dared to strategy her.

A couple of shouted: “We’re with you, Gisèle,” and “Be courageous.”

Most then stayed on, hoping to safe seats within the courthouse’s public overflow room from the place they may watch proceedings on a tv display. They had been there to bear witness to the braveness of a grandmother, as she sat quietly in courtroom, surrounded by dozens of her rapists.

“I see myself in her,” mentioned Isabelle Munier, 54. “One of the boys on trial was as soon as a buddy of mine. It’s disgusting.”

“She’s turn out to be a figurehead for feminism,” mentioned Sadjia Djimli, 20.

But they got here for different causes too.

Above all, it appeared, they had been on the lookout for solutions. As France digests the implications of its largest rape trial, which is because of finish this week, it is clear that many French girls – and never simply these on the courthouse in Avignon – are pondering two elementary questions.

The first query is visceral. What may it say about French males – some would say all males – that fifty of them, in a single small, rural neighbourhood, had been apparently keen to simply accept an off-the-cuff invitation to have intercourse with an unknown lady as she lay, unconscious, in a stranger’s bed room?

The second query emerges from the primary: how far will this trial go in serving to to deal with an epidemic of sexual violence and of drug-facilitated rape, and in difficult deeply held prejudices and ignorance about disgrace and consent?

Put merely, will Gisèle Pelicot’s brave stand and her willpower – as she has put it, to make “disgrace swap sides” from the sufferer to the rapist – change something?

An extended trial creates its personal microclimate and, over the previous weeks, a wierd form of normality developed inside Avignon’s Palais de Justice. Amid the TV cameras and the huddles of legal professionals, the sight of dozens of alleged rapists – faces not at all times hidden behind masks – now not provoked the shock it had at the beginning.

The accused strolled round, chatting, joking, grabbing espresso from the machine or getting back from a café throughout the highway, and, within the course of, by some means emphasised the core argument of their varied defence methods: that these had been simply common guys, a cross-section of French society, who had been on the lookout for a “swinging” journey on-line and obtained caught up in one thing surprising.

“[That argument is] probably the most stunning factor about this case. It’s harrowing to consider it,” says Elsa Labouret, who works for a French activist group, Dare to be Feminist.

“I believe most individuals in long-term relationships with males consider their companion as somebody reliable. But now there’s this sense of identification [with Gisèle Pelicot] for lots of girls. Like, ‘okay, so that may occur to me’.

“These usually are not felony masterminds,” she continues. “They simply went on the web… So, it’s doable comparable issues are occurring all over the place.” It’s a view extensively held, but additionally extensively contested in France.

France’s Institute of Public Policies launched figures in 2024 displaying that on common, 86% of complaints of sexual abuse and 94% of rapes had been both not prosecuted or by no means got here to a trial, within the interval between 2012 and 2021.

Ms Labouret argues that sexual violence occurs when sure males know that they “can get away with it. And I believe that is an enormous motive why it is so rampant in France.”

Throughout the four-month trial, on the finish of every courtroom break, the accused would collect by the metallic detector earlier than muscling previous the largely feminine press corps, additionally ready to enter the chamber. Inside, one after the other, the boys took their flip to share their accounts.

A court-appointed psychiatrist Laurent Layet testified that the accused had been neither “monsters” nor “peculiar males”. Some wept. A couple of confessed. But most supplied an array of excuses, with many saying they had been merely “libertines” – because the French put it – indulging a pair’s fantasies, and that they’d no manner of realizing Ms Pelicot had not consented. Others claimed Dominique Pelicot had intimidated them.

There are only a few clear patterns or shared traits among the many 51 males on trial. They characterize a large spectrum in society: three-quarters have youngsters. Half are married or in a relationship. Just over 1 / 4 of them mentioned they’d been abused or raped as youngsters.

There is not any discernible grouping by age or job or social class. The two traits all of them share are that they are male, and that they made contact on a bootleg on-line chat discussion board known as Coco, recognized for catering to swingers, in addition to attracting paedophiles and drug sellers. According to French prosecutors, the location, which was shut down earlier this 12 months, has been cited in additional than 23,000 reviews of felony exercise.

The BBC has discovered that 23 of these on trial – or 45% – had earlier felony convictions. Although the authorities don’t acquire exact information, in response to some estimates that’s roughly 4 instances the nationwide common in France.

“There’s no typical profile of males who commit sexual violence,” concluded Labouret.

One one that has adopted the case extra carefully than most is Juliette Campion, a French journalist who has been in courtroom all through the trial to report for the general public broadcaster France Info. “I believe this case may have occurred in different international locations, after all. But I believe it says quite a bit about how males see girls in France… About the notion of consent,” she says.

“Numerous males do not know what consent really is, so [the case] says quite a bit about our nation, sadly.”

The Pelicot case is actually serving to to form the contours of attitudes to rape throughout France.

On 21 September, a bunch of distinguished French males, together with actors, singers, musicians and journalists, wrote a public letter that was revealed in Liberation newspaper, arguing that the Pelicot case proved that male violence “is just not a matter of monsters”.

“It is a matter of males, of Mr Everyman,” the letter mentioned. “All males, with out exception, profit from a system that dominates girls.”

It additionally sketched out a “highway map” for males in search of to problem the patriarchy, with recommendation corresponding to “let’s cease considering there’s a masculine nature that justifies our behaviour”.

Some consultants imagine the large public curiosity within the Pelicot case may already be producing advantages.

“This entire case is so helpful for everybody, for all generations, for younger boys, for younger ladies, for adults,” says Karen Noblinski, a Paris-based lawyer specialising in sexual assault instances.

“It has raised consciousness in younger folks. Rape does not at all times occur in a bar, in a membership. It can occur in our dwelling.”

But there’s clearly far more work to be completed. I went to fulfill Louis Bonnet, who’s the mayor of the Pelicots’ dwelling village, Mazan, early on within the trial. Although he was unequivocal in condemning the alleged rapes, he acknowledged clearly and twice that he felt Gisèle Pelicot’s expertise had been overblown, and argued that as she’d been unconscious, she had suffered lower than different rape victims.

“Yes, I’m minimising it, as a result of I believe it may have been a lot worse,” he mentioned on the time.

“When there are children concerned, or girls killed, then that may be very critical as a result of you possibly can’t return. In this case, the household should rebuild itself. It will likely be exhausting, however nobody died. So, they will nonetheless do it.”

Bonnet’s feedback provoked outrage throughout France. The Mayor later issued an announcement, expressing his “honest apologies”.

Online, most of the debates across the case have targeted on the controversial suggestion that “all males” are able to rape. There’s no proof to help such a declare. Some males have pushed again towards the argument, utilizing the hashtag #NotAllMen.

“We don’t ask different girls to bear the ‘disgrace’ of girls who behave badly, why ought to the mere reality of being a person qualify us to bear the disgrace?” requested one man on social media.

But the pushback was swift. Women reacted to the #NotAllMen hashtag with anger and, typically, with particulars of their very own abuse.

“The hashtag has been created by males and utilized by males. It’s a solution to silence the struggling of girls,” wrote journalist Manon Mariani. Later, a male musician and influencer, Waxx, added his personal criticism, telling the hashtag customers to “shut up as soon as and for all. It’s not about you, it is about us. Men kill. Men assault. Period.”

Elsa Labouret believes French attitudes nonetheless want difficult. “I believe lots of people nonetheless suppose that sexual violence is attractive or romantic or one thing that’s a part of the best way that we do issues right here [in France],” she argues.

“And it is so essential that we query that and that we do not settle for this sort of argument in any respect.”

In her small workplace simply behind the French parliament constructing on the River Seine, Sandrine Josso, an MP, has a four-letter swearword on a poster beside her desk. It captures the spirit of defiance and willpower that’s driving her marketing campaign towards what’s recognized in France as “chemical submission”, or drugging to be able to rape.

A 12 months in the past, in November 2023, she was at a celebration within the Paris residence of a senator named Joel Guerriau. She claims that he put a drug in her champagne with the intention of raping her. Geuerriau has denied trying to drug her, blaming a “dealing with error” and telling investigators that the glass had been contaminated a day earlier.

In an announcement, his lawyer has mentioned: “We are miles away from the obscene interpretation that one may infer from studying preliminary reviews within the press.” A trial is anticipated subsequent 12 months.

Josso is now campaigning, as she places it, to “make victims’ journeys simpler” in relation to the French authorized system.

“Today, it is a catastrophe. Because only a few victims who file complaints are in a position to have a trial, due to the dearth of proof. [There’s not] sufficient medical, psychological or authorized help. We discover shortcomings all over the place when it considerations sexual violence.”

Josso has now joined forces with Gisèle Pelicot’s daughter, Caroline, to place collectively a drug-testing equipment that may very well be made accessible in pharmacies all through France. It now has authorities backing for a trial rollout, helped by the publicity generated by the Pelicot case.

“I’m optimistic. The medical world and the French folks need disgrace to alter sides [from the victim to the accused],” says Josso, quoting the phrase made well-known by Gisèle Pelicot.

But Dr Leila Chaouachi, a chemist and skilled on the Paris Addiction Monitoring Centre, says that the trial in Avignon is only one step in an extended battle to make folks extra conscious of medicine and rape.

“It must turn out to be an actual main public well being challenge that everybody takes significantly, and which forces the authorities to urgently handle these points to enhance look after victims.

“It’s essential for all of us to consider the difficulty, to contemplate it a well being challenge, not only a justice challenge. It considerations all of us.”

At current the phrase “consent” is just not included within the definition of rape in French legal guidelines, so some have argued that it ought to be modified to make it extra specific. But Ms Noblinski believes the main focus ought to be elsewhere.

“[It] ought to be on the police, on the investigations, on funding them correctly, not on tinkering with the regulation,” she says. “They haven’t got ample assets. They have too many instances, and that is the true challenge. When you’ve got too many issues to deal with, it’s totally exhausting to search out proof.”

On her each day commute to the courthouse, throughout the first weeks of the trial, Gisèle Pelicot walked together with her shoulders hunched and her posture defensive. She appeared flustered by the sheer degree of curiosity the case generated. By the closing arguments, nonetheless, her manner was fully totally different and she sat completely poised.

That has coincided with a higher change: because the trial progressed, the prosecution, these watching – and Mrs Pelicot herself – got here to grasp the extraordinary impression of her choice to decide not only for an open trial, however for each element to be proven in courtroom.

“She’s displaying us that… for those who’re a sufferer… do your greatest to not carry disgrace. Keep your head excessive,” says Elsa Labouret.

“As a lady, you begin by being doubted. You begin off as a liar and it’s a must to show that it is true. I do not doubt that each lady has been by one thing. Something, . In that manner she represents all the ladies on this planet.

“[Gisèle Pelicot] determined to make this greater than herself. To make this about the best way that we, as a society, deal with sexual violence.”

Emerging from yet one more day within the courtroom, the French journalist Juliette Campion stopped to replicate on what impression the case may need. “It was troublesome to see all these movies… As a lady, it is difficult, and I really feel drained,” she says.

“But a minimum of we did our job, and we talked about it. It’s a really small step. It will not be an enormous factor. The solely factor I can hope for now could be that it is going to be a recreation changer for some males. And some girls too, possibly.”

BBC InDepth is the brand new dwelling on the web site and app for the perfect evaluation and experience from our prime journalists. Under a particular new model, we’ll carry you contemporary views that problem assumptions, and deep reporting on the largest points that will help you make sense of a fancy world. And we’ll be showcasing thought-provoking content material from throughout BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. We’re beginning small however considering huge, and we need to know what you suppose – you possibly can ship us your suggestions by clicking on the button under.