AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Heads up. This next interview discusses sexual assault. Come back in about five minutes if you'd like to miss it. In France, Gisele Pelicot is being held as a hero. She's a 72-year-old grandmother whose husband drugged her and then recruited dozens of men to rape her. For months, France has been transfixed by her mass rape trial, which is now entering its final stages. Pauline Arrighi is a French author based in Paris, who's been following the case, and she joins us now. Welcome to the program.
PAULINE ARRIGHI: Thank you.
RASCOE: Just how shocked has France been by this trial?
ARRIGHI: Our whole society is shocked by this trial because this time, we have no choice. We really can't look away. Till now, there had been very few cases of trials of rape, and it was mostly cases of famous and very successful men. So the average man and the average woman can't identify with these people. This time, for the first time, it's totally different because this trial is unique, but it shows the reality. It shows that rapists are average men. They can be husbands, fathers. They don't belong to a corrupt elite. They don't belong to the show business, and it's not an isolated case. Dominique Pelicot found rapists to rape his wife in an area of 30 square miles. So maybe it's a representative sample of French men. Maybe it can be the same in every village.
RASCOE: You talked about how its changed the view of those that perpetrate rapes. But how do you think Pelicot has changed the way people view the victims of sexual assault?
ARRIGHI: Yes, it's also very unique this time because Gisele Pelicot - she thought she was happily married. She's retired. She's not a young actress, so every woman can relate to her. And she decided to make everything public, which was extremely courageous. Even the videos - I mean, there had been hours of video recorded by her husband. He recorded videos of her being raped by many, many men. So even the videos were to be seen during the trials.
So she decided to make all of this public because she wants this trial to change society. It's extremely courageous. And it changes the way we see victims because till now, the problems we've had in fighting rape and violence against women is that women tend to say, I'm not a victim, I don't want to be a victim, because to be a victim means being weak, means you are not able to defend yourself. But the problem is that if there is no victim, there is no perpetrator and there is no crime, so nothing happens, so it's very, very important. This woman, Gisele Pelicot - she doesn't want to be considered a hero. She says, I'm not a hero. I'm a victim, and there is no shame in being a victim.
RASCOE: The verdict in this case is not expected until next month. Do you think this case will change France's rape laws to include consent for the first time?
ARRIGHI: There has been a debate going on for more than a year, so it - I mean, it's not from now. But yes, the debate is more intense now because we realize so much about rape. Till now, the definition of rape has been a penetration under coercion or threat of violence or surprise. So if she didn't resist that much, then it's not considered as violence. She will be told, OK, but you didn't defend yourself so much. You were not beaten up, so the result is that very, very, very few cases of rape are judged, and very, very, very, very few rapists are condemned by the justice. We (ph) - about 1% of them.
So I think it's only the beginning of this debate, and it's complicated, and there will be many issues. But what is important is to make clear that a woman can be passive and can not be able to resist physically. This doesn't mean that it's not rape.
RASCOE: That's the French writer Pauline Arrighi. Thank you so much for joining us.
ARRIGHI: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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