They lined up outside courthouses in southeastern France from morning until evening, and thousands also gathered in cities across the country. They held placards that read: “One rape every six minutes,” “We’re not all men, but there’s always men,” and “Submission is not consent.”
They chant, “The rapist sees you, the victim believes you.”
Women across France are rallying behind 72-year-old passive icon Gisele Pericot. The husband is currently on trial in Avignon for systematically administering drugs and inviting dozens of men, of whom he is a co-defendant. In their home they raped her for almost 10 years.
The shocking case sparked what many women in France called a long-standing reckoning over “rape culture” and systemic sexism in the way sexual violence is handled in the justice system.
“French society, like any other patriarchal society, doesn’t like women and doesn’t protect them,” said Anissa Rami, a 28-year-old freelance journalist living in Paris.
On September 14, feminist organizations held rallies in at least 30 cities in response to the incident. They rallied on Place de la République in Paris, where thousands of demonstrators chanted “We are all Gisele!” Protests spread to Brussels in neighboring Belgium.
Alexandra Lachowski, director of Women for Women France, an organization focused on ending gender-based violence against migrant women, called it a “true moment of solidarity.”
“There were men, women, children and the elderly,” she said.
“People were angry,” said Elsa Labret, a spokeswoman for the feminist group Océ le Feminist!. (Dare to be a Feminist), helped organize the Paris protests.
Gisele Perico has emerged as “a very important icon and a very important person,” she said.
The incident drew attention to France’s growing rape problem. The number of sexual assault victims in France increased by 33% in 2021, almost doubling since 2017, according to a government report. 89% of rape victims were women, while 96% of sexual assault perpetrators were men.
However, of the approximately 35,000 rapes recorded that year, just over 10% were prosecuted and less than 5% resulted in a conviction. And the majority of rape or attempted rape victims, nine out of 10, do not even file a complaint, the report found.
“Everyone can now see what feminists have always denounced,” said Rami, speaking at a protest in Paris.
The women wrote a letter to Perico praising her courage and signed a petition calling for changes to the way the French judicial system handles rape cases.
The case “could be a turning point in French history and French justice,” Léa Rotival, 28, a nonprofit worker who lives in Leon, told USA TODAY.
51 men on trial for abusing Pericot
Gisele Perico considered her 50-year marriage to Dominic Perico a happy one. Then, in 2020, a police call changed her life forever.
71-year-old Dominic Perrico was arrested for filming a woman’s upskirt at a grocery store. When investigators seized his computers, phones and other devices, they discovered about 300 photos and videos documenting Pericot’s abuse at the hands of dozens of men.
French authorities say Dominique Pericot contacted the 50 men currently on trial with him through an online chat room. The New York Times reported that they included firefighters, truck drivers, and technical workers between the ages of 26 and 74, and authorities built a separate space to accommodate all of the defendants in the courtroom. It was necessary to do so.
They represent “Mr. Everybody,” Rami said. “The only thing they have in common is that they are men.”
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“The judicial system is also complicit.”
The slogan seen on demonstrators’ signs is “Shame must change sides.”
For the women demonstrating in support of Gisele Perico, this represents a cultural shift in the way rape cases are viewed. The shame lies with the perpetrator, not the victim.
And for many, it is embodied in Pericot’s fearlessness and nonchalance when confronting his accused rapists in court.
According to the French legal system, Perico could have chosen a private trial, but chose to waive her anonymity instead.
Lachowski believes she made the choice to “expose what’s going on in society.”
“This is extraordinary in terms of exposing the everyday,” Lachowski said. “This is a magnifying glass of our society and shows how dangerous it is for girls and women to just be girls and women and just be themselves.”
Some defense attorneys’ arguments have been criticized as “blaming the victim.”
A lawyer representing several defendants argued that his clients were unaware of the criminal nature of their actions at Pericot’s home. “There is rape and then there will be rape,” he said, according to French newspaper France 24.
On the witness stand, Perricot responded, “Whether it lasts three minutes or an hour, rape is rape.”
At one point, lawyers asked the court to show explicit photos, including close-ups of Pericot’s groin area, raising questions about whether Pericot was an alcoholic or part of a “sex game.” he claimed. Pericotte reportedly asked her daughter to leave the courthouse. According to news reports, the room in which the photo is shown.
“I have felt humiliated during my time in this courtroom,” she said. At one point, she added, “I understand why rape victims don’t press charges.”
Rami said: “They made the victim feel guilty, made her suspect that she was lying, and in this case used video to back it up…The questions are sexist and humiliating.”
“For me, and for many feminists, the justice system is an accomplice,” she added.
“Rape culture”
A few months before the Pericot scandal became a hot topic, France was grappling with various scandals compared to the #MeToo movement in the United States. Like the American movement that exposed Hollywood’s sexual assault culture, it began with a series of allegations: Celebrities from the French film industry.
In February, French actress Judith Godreche filed a complaint against film directors Jacques Doillon and Benoît Jacot, alleging that she was groomed and raped when she was 14 years old. Both men have since been detained.
In June, Dominique Boutona, head of the French Film Agency, was sentenced to three years in prison for sexually assaulting his godson.
And French actor Gerard Depardieu is scheduled to go on trial this month on charges of sexual assault spanning years dating back to the filming of a 2021 film. Another actress also accused her of rape in 2018. The lawsuit against French President Emmanuel Macron and other French celebrities sparked widespread outrage over their support for the disgraced star.
French women say this is evidence of a broader problem.
“This kind of culture is everywhere,” Rotival said. This is reflected in “the way women are treated when they go to tell police what happened to them, and the way the government approaches the issue of violence against women.”
Pericot incidents are now happening in France “everywhere you go, every dinner you attend, every conversation you have,” Lachowski said.
“We’re just getting started, but it’s already a big story,” Rami said.
“It’s a long battle,” she added.
Contributed by: Reuters