Updated Oct. 22, 2026, 11:23 p.m. ET
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline offers free, confidential, 24/7 support to survivors and their loved ones in English and Spanish at: 800.656.HOPE (4673) andHotline.RAINN.org and en EspañolRAINN.org/es.
Though the law guaranteed her anonymity, Gisèle Pelicot stepped forward publicly when her husband and 50 men were put on trial for raping her. For nearly a decade, her then-husband had drugged her and invited dozens of men to assault her in their home in France.
Her courage inspired women around the world and motivated French women to protest, sign petitions, and call for systemic change within their judicial system’s handling of sexual violence.
Now Pelicot, 73, is applauding Jane Doe, the woman at the center of a Cornell University gang rape case, for coming forward.
“[It] takes a lot of courage to do that,” Pelicot told USA TODAY, with help from an English-speaking translator. “We have to help women everywhere regain confidence in themselves and give them that courage to speak out.”
Doe alleged in a Sept. 18 lawsuit that she was gang raped by members of the university’s Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024. The allegations, which made nationwide headlines, prompted a criminal investigation, an independent review at Cornell about its handling of the situation, and an “I Am Jane Doe” social media video campaign.
In an Oct. 14 letter to Cornell faculty senate members, Doe said she felt “unsupported” and “disbelieved” by university President Michael Kotlikoff.
“Maybe she will speak out in her own name,” Pelicot said. “Maybe later, [but] you should listen to her and follow her.”
‘Nothing to be ashamed of and no reason to hide’
A French court convicted Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique Pelicot of aggravated rape and sentenced him to 25 years in prison. 50 co-defendants were also found guilty of various charges.
International audiences have celebrated Pelicot’s decision to face her abusers and her ongoing advocacy around sexual abuse awareness. Gisèle Pelicot, alongside her daughter Caroline Darian, received the Equality Now Trailblazer Award on Oct. 22.
“I chose to waive my right to anonymity and to a trial behind closed doors because I firmly believed I had nothing to be ashamed of and no reason to hide,” Gisèle Pelicot said during her speech, which was translated into English. “And I hope that by making this choice, I could help other women free themselves from the burden of shame that was never theirs to carry.”
Darian, who has advocated for the wide adoption of language like “chemical submission” and “drug-facilitated sexual abuse,” adds that Doe’s story is yet another example that sexual abuse can happen anywhere.
Doe named seven fraternity members in her lawsuit, which said she was raped after being pressured to take ketamine and being too intoxicated to give consent.
“When you voluntarily take some drugs, even some alcohol, [that doesn’t make assault] OK,” Darian told USA TODAY, referring to New York’s controversial sexual assault law. Using alcohol or drugs “is not giving your consent for being abused by someone. So, this is the kind of thing that we have been trying to get to change in the French law, and this is also something that needs to be changed here in the United States.”
Gisèle Pelicot: ‘You need time to rebuild yourself individually’
Darian believes she was also drugged and assaulted by her father, and in September, she launched an awareness campaign across France featuring her mother and encouraging people to come forward, even if they have little to no memory of the assault.
“I was convinced right from the start that we must get this trial open to the public,” she said. “But I wasn’t the one who had to decide. The one who was supposed to decide is my mom, as a victim, as being the most important victim of our family, the real victim, with the proof, with all the evidence, with so many photographs, pictures, and even medical proof.”
Authorities had arrested Dominique Pelicot for filming up women’s skirts at a grocery store. When investigators seized his electronic devices, they identified roughly 300 photos and videos documenting Gisèle Pelicot’s abuse at the hands of dozens of men.
Some of that material included images Dominique Pelicot took of his daughter sleeping and videos he secretly filmed of her naked. In Gisèle Pelicot’s latest memoir, “A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides,” she detailed having to explain her ex-husband’s abuse to her three children, and told USA TODAY that they each had to find a way to heal.
“You need time to rebuild yourself individually, and each one of us has to take time,” she said. “Now, we’re unified together.”
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