Why Gisèle Pelicot, at the heart of France's shocking mass rape trial, is being called a hero

WARNING: This article may affect those who have experienced​ ​​​sexual violence or know someone affected by it.

It's not unusual for Gisèle Pelicot to be greeted with applause when she walks through the courthouse in the southern French city of Avignon.

In the midst of a horrifying mass rape trial against her husband and 50 other accused men, Pelicot, 72, is being called a feminist hero, inspiring thousands of marches, rallies and a push for legal reform to France's rape law to include consent for the first time.

Dominique Pelicot, her husband, has admitted to inviting dozens of strangers over nearly 10 years to their house to rape her after he had drugged her unconscious.

Gisèle Pelicot has been touted for her bravery — not just for surviving her ordeal but for waiving her right to anonymity — and her composure in the witness box, where she stands firm that it's the men — not her — who should be ashamed.

And now that Pelicot has taken the stand for a second time in the trial, which began on Sept. 2, her words have been shared across media and social platforms, with people online even petitioning for her to be made Time magazine's Person of the Year or be given the Nobel Peace Prize.

Sexual assault experts and advocates say she's changing the discourse about rape, and Pelicot herself has said she's "determined that things change in this society."

"I've decided not to be ashamed, I've done nothing wrong ... they are the ones who must be ashamed," Pelicot said Wednesday.

This flips the script on the history of victim-blaming and shaming that is often seen around sexual assault survivors, said Bailey Reid, CEO of the Ottawa-based sexual violence prevention program The Spark Strategy.

"So often, survivors feel they should be ashamed of what happened to them and that they should blame themselves in some way," Reid told CBC News.

"By going public and calling out the perpetrators, Gisèle Pelicot shifts the shame from the victim — where patriarchy and rape culture place the blame — to the perpetrators," said Ummni Khan, an associate professor in the department of law and legal studies at Carleton University in Ottawa.

"Instead, she asserts her power as a survivor, as a hero, in fact, for the women in France and all over the world." 

Over the last several weeks, the court learned that Pelicot and her husband of 50 years lived in a house in Mazan, a small town in Provence. In 2020, a security agent caught Dominique Pelicot taking photos up women's skirts in a supermarket, leading investigators to search his phone and computer.

They found thousands of photographs and videos of men appearing to rape Pelicot in their home when she seemed to be unconscious. Police investigators found communications that Dominique Pelicot sent on a messaging website commonly used by criminals, in which he invited men to sexually abuse his wife.