"I didn't recognise the men. Or this woman. Her cheek was so flabby. Her mouth so limp. She was like a rag doll,"
"When I think back to the moment I made my decision, I realise that if I had been 20 years younger, I might not have dared to refuse a closed session,"
"I would have been afraid of the stares, those damned stares that a woman of my generation has always had to deal with,"
"The closer it got, the more I imagined myself becoming a hostage to their stares, their lies, their cowardice, and their contempt,"
Gisele Pelicot survived mass rapes organised by her husband while she was unconscious after he gave her sedatives. She confronted photographs of herself being assaulted and felt horror and unrecognition of her own face. She refused a closed trial, insisting on a public hearing to expose what she endured despite fears of judgement. During a nearly four-month trial, 51 men including her husband were convicted. She reports vague foreboding before the trial and worries about being overwhelmed by the perpetrators' stares, lies, cowardice, and contempt. Her memoir A Hymn to Life will be published in 22 languages.
Read at The Local France
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