This story discusses events that might be disturbing to some readers.
About a year after a mass rape trial that captured global attention and galvanized a feminist movement in France, Gisèle Pelicot is stepping back into the public spotlight with the release of her deeply vulnerable memoir.
In "A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides," 73-year-old Gisèle Pelicot recounts her years-long ordeal, discovering that her then-husband, Dominique Pelicot, had repeatedly drugged her and brought dozens of strangers to their home to rape her, and later seeking justice in a French court.
The deliberate and violent nature of the crimes and the range of perpetrators involved had shocked the nation when the case first became public in 2021, on the heels of France's #MeToo movement, #BalanceTonPorc, which roughly translates to "expose your pig," and amidst a reckoning over attitudes toward incest and child abuse. Gisèle Pelicot's decision to open the trial to the public in 2024 rather than remain anonymous, as French law allows in sexual abuse cases, thrust the now 73-year-old retiree into the spotlight and turned her into a global feminist icon.
More: Gisele Pelicot went public in French rape case, and it made all the difference
