What the Pelicot rape case says about society

Here is something about a woman unafraid. A woman uninterrupted. A woman unperturbed by what she can lose. Mostly, it's a woman who has nothing left to lose. Or so she thinks.

- Nishtha Gautam

Gisèle Pelicot's world of marital stability, trust, and security came crashing down four years ago. "My world fell apart," she remarked when she first recognised the woman (getting raped by a stranger) in a photograph shown by the police as herself. The Pelicot rape trial has reminded the world of the tenuousness of a woman's sense of safety.

"I am a rapist just like all the others in this room," Dominique Pelicot, Gisèle's husband, said during the trial. And that's what it is all about. Though he made this statement referring to his co-defendants, the 50 men he invited over for almost a decade to rape his sedated wife, it has far greater resonance for women across the world.

Gisèle's decision to waive her anonymity during the rape trial made this resonance even stronger. She became an Everywoman. It's making men uncomfortable, as usual. "Not all men," runs the hackneyed refrain. It's a discordant note: The fact is that it's easy to turn a man, any man, into a rapist if there's an assurance of no consequences for their actions.