Gisèle Pelicot

Gisèle Pelicot  (; born 7 December 1952) is a French woman who was the victim in the Mazan mass rape case. From 2011 to 2020, her then-husband, Dominique Pelicot, drugged and raped her and also invited at least 51 men to rape her while she was unconscious. Pelicot did not know about the abuse until 2020, when Dominique Pelicot was arrested for taking pictures of women under their skirts in a local supermarket.

During her ex-husband's rape trial in 2024, Pelicot did not want her identity or the trial to be anonymous. The trial received worldwide attention and Pelicot was seen as a hero.

After the trial, Pelicot became a feminist icon and featured in the BBC's 2024 list of 100 women of the year and the Financial Times list of the 25 most influential women of the year. On 20 December, the day after the verdicts, Gisèle appeared on front pages of newspapers across Europe. On the same date, British journalist Catherine Mayer set up a petition calling for Gisèle to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. On 2 January 2025, Gisèle was named personality of the year in a French opinion poll, narrowly beating Donald Trump.

Personal life
Pelicot was born on 7 December 1952 in the city of Villingen in the southern part of West Germany. She is the daughter of a French soldier. She arrived in France when she was five and her mother died of cancer when she was nine. In 1971, she met her future husband, Dominique Pelicot. They married in April 1973 and settled in the Paris suburb of Villiers-sur-Marne. A son, David, and a daughter, Caroline, were born in the early years of the marriage; they were followed by Florian, born in 1986. 

References

Category:1952 births
Category:Living people
Category:French crime victims
Category:People from Baden-Württemberg
Category:French feminists