The Mazan Rape Trial

The ongoing Mazan rape trial of Dominique Pelicot – who admitted to being a rapist
as he testified is profoundly disturbing and harrowing. He has been charged with
secretly drugging his wife of 50 years, and over the course of a decade, inviting and
filming dozens of men as they raped her. Gisele Pelicot’s courage to publicise the
details of her case to engage awareness and fight the stigma surrounding rape and
the victims, has prompted a tidal wave of conversation and questions. Most
centrally, how so many men – fathers, brothers, pillars of their community – not only
engaged in dozens of these rapes but defended themselves on the premise that
having a husband’s permission to have sex with his unconscious wife, leaves them
innocent.

Before anything, we must celebrate and admire the unbelievable courage and
fearlessness of Gisele Pelicot to waive her right to anonymity – letting the world and
the media into the courtroom – to witness the exploitative and horrific nature of her
abuse, including the footage recorded without her consent. She stated to the court in
Avignon, “it’s not for us to have shame – it’s for them… I want all women who have
been raped to say, ‘Madame Pelicot did it, I can too’. I don’t want them to be
ashamed any longer.” It is indeed her powerful choice that has created such global
attention surrounding this case and the issues of sexual abuse, rape, and drugging.
Gisele Pelicot is now celebrated as a symbol of defiance for French women, and
undoubtedly all women and survivors of abuse, around the world.

However, the legacy of this case, and the horrifying details of the crimes and
violations committed, ultimately pose a more lasting and chilling issue. The reality
that dozens, potentially hundreds of men, chose to willingly and knowingly sexually
assault, sodomise and rape an unconscious woman, within a small community, is
unconscionable. The fear that every woman carries with her daily, that any man on
the street is a potential attacker, has been overtly and dramatically realised in this
case. The scale and number of the assailants of Gisele Pelicot, proves that this is
not one man or simply a horrifically vile anomaly. This is a group of dozens of men –
all who hold the belief that their actions were legitimised through a husband’s
consent to abuse his wife. When on trial, one of the accused stated that, “as the
husband had given me permission, in my mind she agreed to it”. What example
does this set, not only for the women of France but all women around the world –

that in a modern, progressive democracy, the idea that women are property at the
dispensation of their husbands is valid enough in some minds, to constitute their
legal defense in a court of law.

Whilst we await the outcome of the Mazan Rape Trial, and applaud the tenacity and
example of Gisele Pelicot, a broader and deeper issue of gender-based violence,
abuse, and male-perpetrated sexual assault must be raised. For the women of
Mazan, their streets, and even their homes and husbands no longer feel safe. For
women around the world, it gives us one more reason to hold our keys between our
fingers as we walk home.

Written by: Bella Greenstock

Edited by: Mina Jigau

• feminism
• gisele pelicot
• politics
• trial