🔗 Share this article

France's individual subjected to numerous attacks, Gisèle Pelicot, is heading back to the courtroom this week to come face-to-face with an individual convicted of assaulting her, the only man who is appealing against the prior year's court decision in which a collective of 51 defendants were sentenced for attacking her as she was, under the influence, administered by her partner in their residence.

Back then, the survivor's defiant public stance was seen as a possible turning point in the fight against assault. However across the nation, that positive outlook appears to be wilting.

"I will attack you should you remain here," threatened a person standing outside a historic church in the community, the charming locale where Gisele and Dominique Pelicot once lived.

He'd just overheard me asking an elderly woman about the effect of the Pelicot case on France and, while promising to break our equipment too, was now stating that the community was fed up with being connected to one of the internationally recognized rape trials.

Several days prior, the local official had put forth a gentler version of the similar perspective, in a official announcement that depicted Gisèle Pelicot's prolonged suffering as "a personal situation… that has nothing to do with us."

One can well understand the official's desire to safeguard the community's image and its travel business. However it is important to recognize that a year earlier, he'd made headlines nationwide after he'd stated to me on two occasions, in an conversation, that he sought to "minimize" the severity of Gisèle Pelicot's ordeals because "there were no fatalities", and minors were not part of it.

Additionally it should be mentioned that nearly every one of the female residents we were able to interview in Mazan last week did not share the mayor's desire to regard the proceedings as, primarily, something to "leave behind."

Having a smoke in a shadowed entrance near the place of worship, a government worker, who identified herself as the individual, spoke with open resentment.

"People no longer discuss it, including in this town. It appears to be forgotten. I am aware of an individual going through domestic violence right now. Yet ladies keep it secret. They're afraid of the individuals who commit these acts," she stated, adding that she was "sure" that additional the assailants were still at large, and free, in the area.

Strolling in the vicinity past a couple of sunbathing cats, another resident, 68, was just as eager to converse, but had a contrasting opinion of the Pelicot case.

"Globally things are changing. The nation is developing." Due to the survivor's actions? "Yes. It's been a boost, for women to express themselves openly," she told me, emphatically.

Throughout the nation, there is no doubt that the attention spawned by the survivor's internationally transmitted determination that "the stigma ought to shift" - from the assaulted to the assailant – has supplemented the drive to a movement opposing abuse earlier activated by the activist campaign.

"I would say altering conduct is something that requires decades. [But] the proceedings sparked a huge, historic mobilisation… targeting abuse, and fighting exemption from punishment," remarked a coordinator, who co-ordinates a alliance of multiple women's groups in the country. "We're focused on training professionals, aiding those affected, on examinations."

"Yes, France has changed. The [number of] complaints of rapes has increased threefold, showing that victims – women and girls – they come forward and they desire accountability," concurred Céline Piques, spokesperson for the organization "Osez le féminisme".

And yet, the vigor and hope that engulfed Gisèle Pelicot at the end of the year, as she exited the judicial building and into a group of backers, have not led to many significant alterations to the way the authorities addresses the challenge of assault.

In fact, there is a widespread understanding among activists and specialists that conditions are, rather, declining.

"Unfortunately, the government does not react," stated the advocate, pointing to data indicating that numbers of guilty verdicts are flat-lining despite a significant increase in reported rape cases.

"The picture is bleak. There is a backlash. Rape culture ideas are returning with force. This is evident in the masculinist movement gaining traction, especially with young boys and teenagers," noted the activist,