Giselle Pelicot again collides with one of his rapes in court

The mass victim of the rape of France, Giselle Pelicot, returned to court on Monday to stand up to one of her attackers, the only man who appealed against last year’s court sentence, in which a total of 51 were convicted of rape, while she was lying on her husband.

At that time, the challenging public position of Madame Pelicot was regarded as a potential catalytic moment in the fight against sexual abuse. But in France, it seems that optimism is fading.

“I’ll break your head if you don’t leave now,” a man growing up in front of a medieval church in Mazan, the picturesque town where Giselle and Dominic Pelikot once lived.

He just heard me that, asking an elderly woman about the influence of a Pelicot case on France, and although he threatened to destroy our camera, he was now explaining that the city was tired of being associated with one of the most famous rapes in the world.

A few days earlier, the mayor of Mazan had issued a gentler version of the same argument, in a public statement describing Jiesel Pelicot’s annual test as “a private question … which has nothing to do with us.”

One can well understand the wish of Mayor Luis Bone to protect the reputation of his city and its tourism industry. But it seems worth noting that a year earlier he made titles in France after he told me twice in an interview that he wanted to “play” the seriousness of Giselle Pelicot’s trials because “no one was killed” and no children were involved.

It is also worth noting that almost all the women we talked to in Mazan last week did not share the mayor’s desire to look at the Pelikot case as above all something to “move beyond”.

Smoking a cigarette in a shaded door not far from the church, a 33-year-old civil servant who gave his name as Aureli spoke with undisguised bitterness.

“No one is talking about it anymore, even here, in Mazan. It seems to have never happened. I know that someone has experienced domestic violence right now. But women are hiding it. They are afraid of the men who do these things,” she said, adding that she is “sure” that more than Gisèle Pelicot rapes remain in the neighborhood.

Walking around a few sunbathing cats, the 68 -year -old Aurore Baralie was equally wishing to speak, but took a different look at the Pelicot case.

“The world is evolving. France is evolving.” With the help of Madame Pelicot? “Yes. It was a boost, women would talk freely,” she categorically told me.

Within France, there is no doubt that the publicity generated by Gizel Pelicot’s globally broadcasting that “shame should change the sides” – from the victim to the rapist – provided additional inertia to a campaign against sexual abuse already vigorously from Metoo movement.

“I would say that a change in behavior is something that takes generations. (But) Pelicot’s case caused huge, historical mobilization … against sexual violence and against impunity,” said Alice Ahrabare, who coordinates a network of 50 feminist organizations in France. “We are focused on training professionals supporting victims, on investigations.”

“Yes, France has changed. (Number of) the complaints of rape has tripled, showing that the victims – women and girls – they speak and want justice,” agreed to Céline Piques, a spokesman for the NGO Dare to be a feminist.

Yet, the energy and optimism that covered Giselle Pelicot last December, when she came out of the Avignon Judicial Chamber and to supporters of supporters did not lead to many significant changes in the way the French state is dealing with the issue of sexual violence.

In fact, there is a close consensus among campaigns and experts that things are getting worse instead.

“Unfortunately, the government does not respond,” said Piques Céline, indicating statistics showing that the degree of condemnation is flat, despite the sharp rise in the reported rape cases.

“The picture is gloomy. There is a reaction. The ideas of the rape culture come back very strongly. We can see this with the masculinist movement, which increases in popularity, especially in young boys and teens,” added Alice Akhabare, also referring to the rise of pornography of deep dust.

In the midst of the financial and political crisis in France, with a public debt in the last two years, and the country has five premiere ministers, the government has categorically defended its record, saying it has made “decisive” changes, including training expenses in this area over the last five years – an “unprecedented” increase.

However, the Senate Senate report this summer came to the conclusion that the government “lacks a strategic compass” when it came to dealing with rape and other forms of sexual abuse. Recently, the Council of Europe was extremely critical of France’s efforts to protect women.

A well -placed source told us that even the data on the number of rapes reported in France are unreliable due to too complex bureaucracy.

Sometimes a news will offer another small impetus to optimism.

In Dijon, a 60-year-old, accused of drugging his wife for others to rape her, was arrested in August after a man invited to participate later called the police, doubting her “consent”.

The alleged victim’s lawyer Marie-Kristin Kleping told us that she was “sure” that knowing the Pelicot and Fear of being caught in something like that caused this phone call.

In May, French movie star Gerard Depardo was found guilty of sexual assault on two women in what many lawyers and activists welcomed as a significant blow to a widely perceived impunity culture, allowing powerful men to abuse women.

“It can mean something,” Elodi Tuayon-Hibon told the BBC, “since he is very protected, (even) by President Macron,” who seems to defend the actor at one point. Mrs. Tuaillon-Hibon is a lawyer based in Paris who had previously participated in the pursuit of Depardieu.

“I do not think that the process (Pelicot) has changed everything to the police and the court level,” says Emanuel Rivier, a lawyer specialized in the cases of rape. She cites chronic disadvantages, together with the lack of police training and specialization.

And now Giselle Pelicot herself is returning to court in the southern city of Nims to stand against one of the men sentenced to rape her.

“She feels that she should be there and is responsible for being there until the procedure is completely completed,” her lawyer Stefan Babono explained to me.

The real impact of her decision to abandon her right to anonymity may not be clear for many years, but lawyer Elodi Tuayon-Hibon is not inclined to be optimistic.

“This changed some things. But actually very little,” she concluded, comparing sexual violence in France with a “war led against women and children every day.”

“We still have a lot of changes to (do).”

I asked her if she was surprised that the case of pelicot had no deeper impact.

“No. It is not at all surprised, because, well, this is France. The culture of rape is something deeply rooted in our society. And until it is taken seriously as a matter of public policy, it will not change.”

Additional reporting by Marian Baisney