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The French woman, who endured nearly a ten years of rapes by scores of men after being incapacitated by her former spouse, is set to appear court in France once more this Monday. This comes after one of the men found guilty of raping her filed an appeal, leading to a new hearing.

Pelicot emerged as a feminist icon after choosing to waive her anonymity during the 2024 trial involving her ex-husband and numerous defendants. Her lawyer, Antoine Camus, stated that while she would have preferred the ordeal of another trial, she will be in attendance throughout the four-day appeal at the Nîmes court in southern France.

“She will be there to make clear that a rape is a rape, that there is no such thing as a small rape,” Camus told the press.

Husamettin Dogan, a 44-year-old construction worker sentenced to nine years in prison for raping Pelicot, has appealed his conviction. The first trial revealed that Dogan reached out to her then-husband through a online forum and traveled to their home the same night in June 2019, informing his own wife he was leaving. He was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was incapacitated.

Dogan claimed during the first trial that he believed it was just a game. “I am not a criminal, that’s too difficult for me to accept,” he said. His legal representative refused to comment before the appeal.

Initially, 17 of the 51 convicted men indicated they would appeal, but 16 withdrew over time, leaving only one appeal active.

Dominique Pelicot, described as one of the most notorious sex offenders in recent French memory, was handed 20 years in prison for administering drugs to his then-wife and arranging for numerous men to rape her at their home in southern France over many years of marriage.

Testimony in last year’s trial disclosed that Dominique Pelicot had mixed sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication into his wife’s food or drinks, then brought in men to assault her in the village of Mazan in the French countryside. A total of 50 other men were found guilty in the case.

Now serving a prison sentence in isolation, Dominique Pelicot is set to appear as a witness at the appeal. He is expected to restate his previous testimony: “I am a rapist and all the accused men in this room are rapists.”

Gisèle Pelicot, a 72-year-old former logistics manager, had insisted that the first trial be held in open court to educate the public about drug-induced rape. “It’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them,” she stated in court.

The case generated a significant effect globally, with feminist organizations across the world supporting Gisèle Pelicot and international figures releasing statements in her support.

However, campaigners and lawyers noted that the case highlighted how prevalent and frequent rape and sexual violence continues to be.

In a recent case, a 46-year-old man in Normandy was sentenced 12 years in prison for raping his partner while she was asleep on multiple instances in 2022. Similar to Dominique Pelicot, he first came to police attention for recording up a woman’s skirt in a supermarket, and investigators later discovered videos of the assaults on his digital equipment.

The appeal in the Pelicot case takes place amid growing criticism of the French justice system’s treatment of rape. Several damning reports since the first trial have indicated that the system continues to disappoint rape victims on a significant level.

This year, the European Court of Human Rights condemned France for “failing to protect” the rights of three teenagers who reported rape.

One teenager who accused more than a dozen firefighters of abuse was found to have suffered “secondary victimisation and discriminatory treatment” by the French justice system, which failed to protect her dignity “by allowing the use of judgmental and guilt-inducing statements, which propagated gender stereotypes.”

In another instance, France was found to have violated the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of a hospital pharmacist who filed a rape complaint against her supervisor.

This month, the High Council for Equality, an advisory body associated with the French prime minister’s office, reported that despite a tripling in rape complaints in France since the global #MeToo movement in 2016, the number of cases reaching court remains dangerously low, with only 3.3% of complaints leading to convictions.

More than 130 feminist groups are campaigning for comprehensive changes at every level of the French justice system in addressing rape, calling for major funding increases and improved government assistance and prevention.

“The Pelicot case was a kind of electric shock, it enabled a lot of people to talk about rape and spousal assault. However, there has not really been a government action. There is a great deal missing in France, and serious dysfunction [in the justice system],” said Anne-Cécile Mailfert of the Fondation des Femmes.

Separately, parliament is currently debating adding a clear legal standard of rape into French law.

Marie-Charlotte Garin, a Green MP who supports rewording the law, stated that the Pelicot case had altered French society’s understanding of consent and that updating the legal wording would help “a societal shift to move from a culture of rape to a culture of consent.”

However, Garin emphasized that wording alone is insufficient to address persistent “shortcomings” of the entire French state toward rape survivors. “We need a overhaul in the system to improve how we handle rape,” she said.