Feminist figure
Gisèle Pelicot receives the highest French honorary distinction
The septuagenarian, known worldwide after the trial of her rapists in 2024, is among the 589 personalities distinguished by the Legion of Honor.
Gisele Pelicot leaves the courthouse after having heard the verdict of the court which condemned his ex-husband to the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for having committed and orchestrated his collective rape with dozens of strangers which he had recruited online, in Avignon, on December 19, 2024 (image of archives).
AFP/Miguel Medina
The French Gisèle Pelicot, who became a world figure in feminist combat after the resounding trial of her rapists in 2024, is among the 589 personalities distinguished by the Legion of Honorthe highest honorary distinction in France.
The “Promotion of the Legion of Honor of July 14”, a national day in France, was published Sunday in a decree in the Official Journal.
The septuagenarian, anonymous until her trial, suffered tens of rapes for a decade by her ex-husband who had previously sedated her, and at least fifty men recruited by the latter on the Internet.
Public trial
During the trial in the south-east of France between September and December 2024, she became a feminist icon, especially after allowing a public trial by refusing the camera, so that the “shame changes camp” and no longer weighs on the shoulders of victims of rape.
His ex-husband Dominique Pelicot was sentenced in December to 20 years in criminal imprisonment and did not appeal. His 50 co-accused, mostly recognized as guilty of rapes, aged 27 to 74, were sentenced to sentences that were expanding between three years in prison, two of which were suspended, and 15 years of criminal imprisonment. Some have appealed.
Since the trial called “Mazan rapes”, Gisèle Pelicot has received the Liberty Prize, awarded by 10,000 young people from 84 countries, “for her fight against the trivialization of rape and sexual violence”.
It was designated among the “100 most influential people of 2025” by the American magazine Time in mid-April and will publish His memories January 27, 2026 in twenty languages.
The Legion of Honor, the highest of French national distinctions created in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, rewarded this year 589 people “investing for the general interest”, said the great Chancellery in a press release.
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