WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST BLANdine Deverlanges wants to be in court to support Gisèle Pélicot as much as she can, but often the testimony in the rape trial implicating dozens of men is too much.
"Sometimes it is really unbearable, so I cannot go every day," said Deverlanges, founder of Les Amazones d'Avignon, a group whose members have protested outside Vaucluse criminal court since the case against Pélicot's husband Dominique and 50 other men started on September 2.
"I felt sick," Deverlanges told Newsweek in describing the first time she heard details of how the retired electrician allegedly drugged his wife and recruited accomplices in an online chatroom to sexually violate her while it was being filmed.
"During the hearing I cry and the women around me, you see tears on their faces—it is so inhuman. This woman has been a victim of such monstrosity that we feel compassion and anger and everything is mixed," she said. "You feel so disgusted."
Gisèle Pélicot arrives at the courthouse of Avignon on September 17, 2024 during the trial of her former husband Dominique Pélicot. He is accused of drugging her for nearly 10 years and inviting strangers to... CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP via Getty Images
Gisèle Pélicot, 72, has won praise for waiving her anonymity and walking defiantly into the Avignon courtroom every day, sometimes behind the men accused of raping her.
On September 17, she heard her husband of five decades admit: "I am a rapist like the others in this room."
The range of professions and ages of the accused reflects a snapshot of different generations and a cross-section of working and middle-class rural France. The youngest is 26, the oldest 74, and they include truck drivers, members of the military, a nurse and a journalist. The modus operandi of the accused combined with the everyday nature of their occupations have tested public comprehension.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 18, 2024 من Newsweek Europe.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 18, 2024 من Newsweek Europe.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Mystery of Ginger Cat Is out of the Bag
The genetics behind the vibrant orange color in feline coats is finally confirmed after 112 years
Paris Hilton & Nicole Richie
PARIS HILTON AND NICOLE RICHIE ARE READY TO BRING A LITTLE “SANASA” to the world with Peacock's Paris & Nicole: The Encore, their first project together since their reality show The Simple Life ended in 2007. What's “sanasa”? It's a song and phrase the longtime friends created as kids and popularized on The Simple Life. The show, a cultural phenomenon in the early days of reality TV, followed them over a series of blue-collar jobs. Now they're bringing it back as an opera. “I know this is just going to make people laugh, have fun, be nostalgic and just celebrate our friendship,” Hilton said. While Richie acknowledged “you can't do Simple Life again,” she said now “felt like the right time.” The famous pair also revisit some old jobs in Arkansas, like fast-food chain Sonic, where they now have drinks named for them. “I think that there is a part of our friend- ship that the show ended up showing that people connect to,” Richie said. As for this new special, Hilton is glad to do something positive for their fans. “It's been such a crazy past couple years, and I just feel like the world needs more joy.”
What Next for Your Drugstore?
Walgreens and Amazon are placing opposing bets on the future of retail pharmacy
AMERICA'S GREATEST WORKPLACES for Diversity
AS COMPANIES IN THE UNITED STATES CONTINUE TO navigate the evolving dynamics of the workplace, diversity remains a cornerstone of organizational success and social responsibility.
FIGHTING SPIRITS
ANDREA MCCARTHY TOLD FRIENDS and family when she gave up alcohol on January 1, 2024, that she would toast 12 months off the sauce with a drink to ring in 2025. As that anniversary approached, the Los Angeles-born content creator told Newsweek she had had a change of heart.
Lessons Over Lunch
Ninety-year-old volunteer Hugh showed me how the winter years can be full of purpose
Is California's Green Dream Hot Air?
The state aims to rely on zero-carbon energy sources in two decades' time but has hurdles to overcome along the way
Power Struggle
As the dust settles following the toppling of Bashar al-Assad, new front lines could be drawn in Syria's old civil war
Ray Romano
THE MAJOR THING ABOUT NETFLIX'S NO GOOD DEED THAT APPEALED TO Ray Romano was that it was unlike anything he'd done before.
Has J.K. Rowling Won the Culture War?
After years of backlash over trans issues, the Harry Potter author has received major business backing
