For shame to shift sides, we must focus on Dominique Pélicot and the other men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot

This court sketch created at the Avignon courthouse in Avignon, south-eastern France, on October 11, 2024, shows defendant Dominique Pelicot (C) looking up in front of his former partner Gisele Pelicot (R) during his trial in which he is accused of drugging his wife for nearly ten years and inviting strangers to rape her at their home in Mazan, a small town in the south of France. A court in the French southern town of Avignon is trying Dominique Pelicot, a 71-year-old retiree, for repeatedly raping and enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife in her own bed over a decade. Fifty other men, aged between 26 and 74, are also on trial for alleged involvement, in a case that has horrified France. The court proceedings, which runs until December, are open to the public at the request of Dominique Pelicot's ex-wife and victim.

Dominique Pélicot is on trial for routinely drugging and raping Gisèle Pelicot, his former wife, and for inviting dozens of other men to rape and assault her.

Yesterday, a court in Avignon powerfully heard Gisèle Pelicot challenge rape culture and victim-blaming. She took the stand, saying: “I am a woman who is totally destroyed, and I don’t know how I’m going to rebuild myself. I’m 72 soon, and I’m not sure my life will be long enough to recover from this… It’s true that I hear lots of women, and men, who say, ‘You’re very brave.’ I say it’s not bravery, it’s will and determination to change society.”