Women in trouble

September 16, 2024

ISLAMABAD – EVERY day is a terrible day for women everywhere in the world. I’m loath to rank crimes from most horrendous to least because there’s no such thing, so I’m writing about some especially horrific stories in no particular order. Although I have been covering gruesome acts against women for at least two decades and consider myself desensitised, I was stunned by the following.

Dominique Pelicot is on trial in France for the mass rape of his wife, the 72-year-old Gisele, whom he drugged; he enlisted 80 men to rape her in her own bed for a decade. Gisele only found out about these unimaginable crimes when her husband was arrested for inappropriate filming of young girls and police confiscated his computer. There he had kept meticulous records of the repeated sexual abuse of his wife, which he organised and filmed. Police say it is not possible the men did not know she was unconscious. One man charged with the crime told police he thought she was asleep and it was “part of the play”.

Dominique has admitted to drugging his wife with sleeping pills before inviting men he met on an online platform to abuse her. “I put her to sleep, I offered her, and I filmed,” he told the police when he was arrested, according to French media.

I salute Gisele for her bravery in waiving her right to anonymity, attending the trial which she asked be made public and sitting through the images and videos.

Dominique and 18 men are in custody while 32 are attending the trial as free men while one man, who remains at large, will be judged in absentia. He and the 50 men could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. Thirty men, however, are still at large.

Gisele told the court she was worried she had Alzheimer’s