Chere Gisèle Pelicot,
We never stop thinking about these ten years of horror that you experienced, without your knowledge, because it seems so unreal. Unreal and chilling, unreal and frightening, unreal and terrible. From the unspeakable to the light of a trial that you wanted to be public and publicized, your courage is immense.
You wanted your fight for shame to change sides to be public, you wanted to show it to the whole of France, and beyond. This trial is a fight for all women, all our girls, who are victims of violence, assault, rape, to clear your honor, to rehabilitate all our sisters.
We have heard your conviction. Filing a complaint after a rape is an additional ordeal inflicted on women, and too few risk it. Your determination makes you strong, strong not to let yourself be shaken by the grotesque excuses presented by the defense.
You are worthy, with your head held high.
You are heroic, the word crafted, to express your anger, your rage for justice. A healthy anger to get rid of this excess of disgust, an anger that we express with you, throughout France.
To shout that in 2024 it is inconceivable that men can still have as their only representation of woman that of a possession, of a sexual object, which can be destroyed in order to dispose of it and enjoy it.
Since September 2, the whole of France has lived in tune with the trial of fifty-one men, your attackers, as normal as normal can be described. Yet too many voices are still missing to protest the extent of the violence you have suffered.
We, parliamentarians from the Socialists and Allied Group in the National Assembly, from the Socialist, Ecologist and Republican group in the Senate, and from the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, will not let our guard down, and we reaffirm:
- that masculinity gives no right to dominate, possess and exploit women;
- that women’s bodies belong to them alone and that no one can dispossess them of them;
- that women are free, free to dress as they wish, free to live their lives as they wish, free to say yes or no;
- that rape is rape;
- that nothing, absolutely nothing, can make them responsible for sexual assault or rape;
- that we must get away from the myth of “conjugal duty”;
- that rape is an attack on physical and psychological integrity, nothing can justify such an act;
- that the victims’ words are inaudible, that it is urgent that they be heard, supported, believed and brought to justice.
You have 32.88% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.