On 19 December 2024, the French judicial system delivered justice. Dominique Pelicot, a man who drugged and enabled the rape of his wife for nearly a decade, was convicted of aggravated rape and sentenced to twenty years in prison. It was the harshest sentence the law allowed, but it was still not enough. How could it be?
For nine years, while Gisèle slept under heavy sedation, strange men were invited into her home and into her body. He filmed them. He stored thousands of images and videos in a folder he labeled “ABUSES,” as if the violence was a proud archive. Some crimes break the body, and some crimes break the soul. What Gisèle endured was both. But this is not a story about a man who tried to destroy a woman. It is about a woman who refused to let him succeed.
The bravery of staying visible
Between 2011 and 2020, Dominique Pelicot routinely drugged his wife without her knowledge by adding sedatives to her food and drinks until she was fully unconscious. While she lay incapacitated, he assaulted her himself and brought at least 72 men into their home to do the same, recording everything without her consent. Investigators found thousands of these images and videos after his 2020 arrest for secretly filming women in a supermarket.
When the police showed her the evidence, she was confronted with the reality of what her loving husband of 50 long years had done to her. Many survivors would have chosen to disappear from public view after something so brutal. Most of them are pressured to do so. Silence is treated as dignity; disappearance as healing.
But Gisèle did the opposite. She stood in court, in the media, and in front of the world. She refused anonymity, not because she owed anyone her story, but because she owed herself the right to exist without shame. Instead of hiding, she said, “I wanted all victims of rape—not just when they have been drugged, rape exists at all levels—I want those women to say: Mrs Pelicot did it, we can do it too. When you’re raped there is shame, and it’s not for us to have shame – it’s for them. Shame must change sides.”
Shame never belonged to her
Throughout history, rape has been treated like something that stains the victim rather than the perpetrator. Survivors are told to move on quietly. They are told to protect the family, the children, the community, and the reputation of the abuser. They are told to stop making people uncomfortable.
Gisèle rejected that entire system. She carried the truth into the light and placed the shame exactly where it always belonged. She forced the world to see that the victim is never the one who needs to hide. Her name has now become a symbol of resistance. It is proof that a woman can live after the worst thing and still refuse to shrink.
A trial that became bigger than one woman
Her case began as a private investigation and ended up making international headlines. It sparked conversations about:
- unconsciousness and consent
- domestic rape and marital rape
- drug-facilitated sexual assault
- the failure of institutions to protect women
Journalists covered the story because of the horrific details. Feminists, activists, lawyers, and survivors amplified it because of what her visibility represented. What was meant to be a courtroom verdict became a cultural shift. By refusing to disappear, Gisèle held the door open for countless sexual assault survivors who never received justice.
Strength she never should have needed
There is nothing admirable about the pain she lived through. There is no inspiration in the violence she endured. She should never have had to testify while healing. She should never have had to hear her trauma questioned in public. Even though it was extremely challenging, she refused to surrender the parts of herself that survived.
Why her story matters
Survivors are often remembered as mere statistics. Gisèle refused to be a faceless statistic. She insisted on being a person in her own story. She held her head up high and refused to become a cautionary tale whispered behind closed doors.
Her stance gave dignity to every survivor who was ever told to be quiet. It reminded us that telling the truth is sometimes the loudest form of rebellion, even when spoken softly. On December 19, 2024, the system only punished a monster masquerading as a man. Meanwhile, Gisèle Pelicot destroyed the silence and stigma that have plagued rape victims for generations.
Moving forward
The world is already different because she refused to disappear. She has reclaimed her story, and soon the world will read her memoir, A Hymn to Life. I already know it will matter.
Gisèle Pelicot did not get her life back by being silent. She got it back by being seen and speaking up for herself. Because when a survivor refuses shame, it forces everyone else to question why shame was ever placed on her in the first place. Because, as she said, it was never hers to carry.
