Gisele Pelicot, a strong French woman who was drugged by her ex-husband and invited dozens of strangers to sexually assault her over many years, has published her memoir "A Hymn to Life." It tells the painful story of surpassing human limits, the reasons behind her public identity disclosure, and her new beginning after surviving the hell her own husband inflicted.
Gisele Pelicot, who has become a global symbol in the fight against sexual violence, released her memoir "A Hymn to Life" to share her experience of being drugged by her husband and gang-raped by dozens of strangers while unconscious. This shocking 2024 case reverberated worldwide and triggered major reforms in France's rape laws.
At age 73, Pelicot explained her decision to forgo anonymity: "If I do not reveal my identity, no one will know what they did to me... and no one but those in court will see these men’s faces, to look them up and down and ask how we can distinguish rapists from neighbors or colleagues."
In the memoir, she recalls the moment police revealed the truth: her longtime husband had been drugging and raping her for years. Initially, authorities asked if she and her husband were "swingers" (partner swingers). When she denied it, police showed her photos of her unconscious on a bed with strangers.
The book states, "The police gave me numbers... They told me 53 men came to our home to rape me." Pelicot described her confusion, saying she still went home to hang laundry for her husband as usual: "I was like a dog waiting for its master at the garden gate." She also shared the difficulty of telling friends and her children, especially her daughter Caroline, who had to face a truth like "descending into hell and returning." Besides ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, 50 other men were convicted of raping Gisele.
Though she never spoke directly to Dominique during the trial, Pelicot wrote that she plans to visit him in prison to demand answers: "Have you ever thought, 'I have to stop'? Did you assault our daughter? Do you know what hell we are living in? ... Have you ever killed anyone? ... I will ask all these questions. I want answers, and he owes me enough to respond."
Pelicot revealed she drew immense strength from thousands of letters sent by women worldwide and from groups of women who came daily to support her outside the court. She chose to read these letters instead of newspapers because they allowed her to hear the voices of fellow women.
Toward the book’s end, Pelicot shared good news: she found new love with a man she met through mutual friends. She described the night they met as "feeling light-headed with happiness."
"I need to love again. I am not afraid... I still have faith in people. Once, that was my greatest weakness, but now it is my strength and my revenge," Pelicot concluded in her powerful memoir.
/source/Reuters