“I was like a rag doll,” is Gisèle Pelicot’s harsh confession when the police showed her the photos in which she was raped by men she had never seen before. The French newspaper Le Monde has exclusively published several excerpts from the woman’s memoirs, which will be published on February 17.
‘Et la joie de vivre’ (‘A hymn to life’) is the title of the book in which she tells how the hardest moment of her life began, when the police summoned her to inform her that her husband had been arrested after drugging her and allowing other men to abuse her for a decade. “The policeman gave a number: 53 men would have come to our house to rape me,” Pelicot said.
His cheek was so flabby, his mouth so slack…
On November 2, 2020, Gisèle was summoned by the Police, although she believed it was because they were going to tell her that her husband had recorded three women under their skirts. Something that he himself, repentant and crying, had confessed to her. However, agent Laurent Perret showed him some photos. “You’re not going to like them, that’s you in the photo,” he began to tell her.
“I didn’t recognize the people, or that woman. Her cheek was so flabby, her mouth was so slack… She was like a rag doll,” is how Pelicot described the moment she became aware that the woman lying on the bed was her and a black man was lying behind her, penetrating her.
Previously, the police officer had asked him if they practiced “partner exchange”, something he flatly denied. “I couldn’t stand the idea of others touching me, I need feelings,” she told the police officer, visibly angry. Furthermore, before learning the truth, Gisèle had described her husband Dominique as “kind, loving, a good guy.”
He no longer wants “victim status”
Asked why she rejected the option of holding the trial behind closed doors, she confessed that “if I had been 20 years younger, perhaps I would not have dared,” because she would have been “scared of the damned looks that a woman of my generation has always had to deal with.” However, at 70 years old, he thought that “no one pays attention to you anymore, neither my wrinkles nor my body scared me,” he expressed.
Regarding why he decided to publish the book, he commented that he no longer wants “the status of victim” and that it is a kind of “testament.” The woman has assured that she remains “with her feet on the ground” and that it bothers her to be called an “icon”, although she is “aware” that her story has left “a great mark.”
In addition, she has stated that she intends to visit her husband in prison, so that he can give her answers “looking her in the eyes” and to ask him about their daughter together, who also reported her for suspicions of rape and sexual assault, because photos of her without clothes appeared.
