PARIS (AP) — Gisèle Pelicot’s memoir was released on Tuesday in 22 languages worldwide, sharing details of the horror she went through and sending a powerful message of hope and support to victims of sexual abuse.
“I wanted my story to help others,” Pelicot told French national channel France 5 last week ahead of the release of her book, “A Hymn to Life, Shame has to Change Sides.”
Pelicot recounted her story of survival in the book and in her first series of interviews since the landmark 2024 trial that turned her into a global icon against sexual violence and imprisoned her husband, who drugged her so other men could assault her.
“Today I’m doing better, and this book allowed me to engage in self-reflection, to take stock of my life,” she said. “I had to try to rebuild myself on this field of ruins. Today I am a woman standing strong.”
Pelicot said her book is meant to deliver “a message of hope to all the women who are going through a very complicated period in their lives.”
The shocking case — and Pelicot’s decision to waive her anonymity and speak publicly — prompted a reckoning over rape culture in France and beyond, as her dignity and strength impressed many across the world.
Gymnastic superstar and Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles, herself a survivor of sexual abuse, paid tribute to Pelicot in a message broadcast by the BBC.
“Gisèle has demonstrated to the world that it’s not for victims of sexual abuse to feel shame — it’s the perpetrators,” Biles said. “By waiving her anonymity and refusing to feel shame, Gisèle paves the way for other victims to come forward.”
At the “Des Femmes” (“Women’s”) bookstore in Paris, several readers were eager to buy Pelicot’s book on the day of its release.
“I want to read it,” said Cécile Megueulle, who admires Pelicot. “But I tell myself that reading it will be … actually a little scary. The fact of not being in her shoes but being able to see the other side of the mirror, how she experienced it and how she managed — I don’t know if we can say that — to get through it.”
Selma Memic, a lawyer from Geneva, Switzerland, said: “The case was known as the ‘Pelicot case’ … and now we’re going to hear about ‘Gisèle’. So, that’s maybe what I’m looking for. Who is Gisèle? What are her feelings? How does she look back at it (the trial)?”
In December 2024, Pelicot’s ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, and 50 other men were convicted of sexually assaulting her between 2011 and 2020 while she was under chemical submission. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, while the other defendants received sentences ranging from three to 15 years.
An appeals court later increased the sentence handed to Husamettin Dogan, a construction worker who was the only defendant who challenged his conviction.
Dominique Pelicot, whom Gisèle Pelicot had been married to for nearly 50 years, acknowledged that for years he mixed sedatives into her food and drink so he could rape her and invite other men to do the same.
The unprecedented trial exposed how online pornography, chat rooms and distorted notions of consent can fuel sexual violence.
France passed a law last October that defines rape and other sexual assault as any non-consensual sexual act in the wake of the Pelicot case, joining many other European nations that have similar consent-based laws, including neighboring Germany, Belgium and Spain. Until then, rape under French law was defined as penetration or oral sex using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise.”
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AP journalists Catherine Gaschka and Oleg Cetinic contributed to the story.
