MOnsieur the President of the Republic, we spoke of the sexual violence that Nicolas Hulot and Patrick Poivre d’Arvor subjected us to. “It’s good that the word is free”, did you say after our testimonies [le 1er décembre]. You added: “We don’t want an Inquisition society either. “
How do our stories relate to the Inquisition? From our exposed intimacies would arise the risk of plunging France back into one of the darkest and most unanimously hated periods in Western history? The Inquisition imprisoned, tortured, tortured, burned heretics, those who were suspected of questioning the divine omnipotence and the institution of the Church. The memory of its judges ordering cruel treatment for invented guilt has remained as a symbol of obscurantism, terror and arbitrariness.
You put us on the side of the inquisitors, hated figures of collective memory, representatives of the worst atrocities of the past. Our stories would germinate these tribunals of horror and injustice. Telling our sad stories would be so harmful that you have to assert your will to avoid this very grave danger. We are liars according to our attackers, a threat to the country according to you. What nefarious change would our words be the first fruits of? What power do we have? Not that of condemning, not that of depriving of liberty. We are neither judges, nor powerful, nor rich.
Our difficult and costly testimonies
We have spoken of our most intimate shames, exposed our swallowed tears, explained our imposed silences or our neglected stories. These testimonies have been difficult and costly for many of us. It took us years to have the strength to deliver them. We did it to support the first, those who had the courage to go to justice. Twice, the judicial institution closed the complaints and ignored our testimonies without seeking to know if other women could have been victims of the same men.
We spoke out of civic duty. We have nothing else to gain than to tell a truth, even disturbing, and to enlighten the country on the treatment of sexual violence, on the use that certain men make of their power, on the complacency which them. authorize it, on the impunity they enjoy. We did so with respect for the institutions and rules of the Republic.
“By waving the inquisitorial threat, you are telling us that we are dangerous. One more piece in the silencing machine ”
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