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The French woman, who survived nearly a ten years of rapes by dozens of men after being incapacitated by her ex-husband, is set to appear court in France once more this Monday. This follows one of the men found guilty of raping her launched an appeal, triggering a second trial.

Pelicot emerged as a feminist icon after opting to forgo her anonymity during the legal proceedings involving her ex-husband and numerous defendants. Her attorney, Antoine Camus, explained that while she would have preferred the stress of another trial, she will be present throughout the multi-day appeal at the Nîmes court in the south of 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 builder given to nine years in prison for assaulting Pelicot, has appealed his conviction. The initial trial revealed that Dogan reached out to her then-husband through a chatroom and traveled to their home the same night in June 2019, telling 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’m not a rapist, that’s too heavy for me to bear,” he said. His legal representative declined to comment before the appeal.

Initially, 17 of the 51 convicted men signaled they would appeal, but 16 dropped out over time, leaving only one appeal proceeding.

Dominique Pelicot, described as one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced 20 years in prison for drugging 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 mashed potato or drinks, then invited 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 earlier testimony: “I am a rapist and all the charged men in this room are rapists.”

Gisèle Pelicot, a 72-year-old former supply chain professional, had demanded that the first trial be held publicly to raise awareness about assault under sedation. “We should not feel ashamed, it’s for them,” she stated in court.

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

However, activists and lawyers noted that the case exposed how prevalent and commonplace rape and sexual violence remains.

In a recent case, a 46-year-old man in Normandy was given 12 years in prison for raping his partner while she was asleep on several occasions in 2022. Similar to Dominique Pelicot, he first came to police attention for filming 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 critical reports since the first trial have shown that the system continues to disappoint rape complainants on a significant level.

This year, the European Court of Human Rights censured France for “failing to protect” the rights of three teenagers who disclosed 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 permitting the use of moralising and guilt-inducing statements, which reinforced 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 alarmingly small, with only 3.3% of complaints resulting in convictions.

More than 130 feminist groups are campaigning for sweeping reform at every level of the French justice system in addressing rape, calling for major funding increases and improved state support and prevention.

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

Separately, parliament is currently considering incorporating a consent-based definition of rape into French law.

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

However, Garin stressed that wording by itself is insufficient to address persistent “shortcomings” of the entire French state toward rape survivors. “It requires a revolution in the system to improve how we handle rape,” she said.