Gisele Pelicot, the 72-year-old victim of mass rape whose ordeal has shocked the world, told a trial in southern France on Wednesday that she was determined that making her case public should help other women and change society. <\/p>\n
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. Fifty other men also stand trial, accused of raping her. <\/p>\n
Gisele Pelicot, her voice often shaking with emotion, told the court she was destroyed by what happened to her. She said how \u201cunbelievably violent\u201d it was for her that many of the accused in the trial, which started on September 2, said they thought she agreed to the rapes or was faking sleeping. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve decided not to be ashamed, I\u2019ve done nothing wrong,\u201d Gisele Pelicot, who has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence, told the court in Avignon. <\/p>\n
She said she had insisted the trial be held publicly, and not behind closed doors, as is often the case to protect rape victims, in the hope it would help other rape victims. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey (rapists) are the ones who must be ashamed,\u201d she said, adding that having videos, filmed by her husband, of some of her rapes, shown during the trial, was \u201cvery difficult but necessary.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not expressing hatred or hate, but I am determined that things change in this society,\u201d said Gisele Pelicot. <\/p>\n
Protests have been organized across France to show support for Gisele Pelicot, with many women expressing admiration for her courage. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not courage. It\u2019s determination to change things,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is not just my battle, but that of all rape victims.\u201d <\/p>\n
Most of the accused told the court they have been manipulated by Dominique Pelicot, rejecting the blame on him. Only a few have admitted to raping Gisele Pelicot. <\/p>\n
Some have apologized. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hear those apologies, but they are inaudible,\u201d she told the court. \u201cBy apologizing, they are trying to excuse themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n
Saying her husband\u2019s betrayal of her trust was beyond measure, Gisele Pelicot told the court: \u201cI\u2019m a woman who\u2019s totally destroyed.\u201d <\/p>\n
She had thought he was the perfect husband, she told the court, before adding: \u201cMy life has tumbled into nothingness.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Gisele Pelicot, the 72-year-old victim of mass rape whose ordeal has shocked the world, told a trial in southern France on Wednesday that she was determined that making her case public should help other women and change society. Dominique Pelicot, her husband, has admitted to inviting dozens of strangers over nearly 10 years to their <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9056,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}