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

Pelicot became a feminist icon after choosing to forgo her anonymity during the legal proceedings involving her ex-husband and 50 other men. Her attorney, Antoine Camus, stated that while she would have rather avoided the stress of another trial, she will be present throughout the multi-day appeal at the Nîmes court in southern France.

“She will be there to explain that a rape is a rape, that there is no concept as a small rape,” Camus informed the press.

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

Dogan asserted during the first trial that he believed it was a form of role-play. “I’m not a rapist, that’s too difficult for me to bear,” he said. His legal representative refused to comment before the appeal.

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

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

Testimony in last year’s trial revealed that Dominique Pelicot had crushed 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 in a prison sentence in isolation, Dominique Pelicot is scheduled to appear as a witness at the appeal. He is expected to repeat his earlier testimony: “I admit to being a perpetrator and all the accused men in this room are rapists.”

Gisèle Pelicot, a 72-year-old former logistics manager, had demanded that the first trial be held in open court to educate the public about drug-induced rape. “We should not feel ashamed, it’s for them,” she stated in court.

The case generated a massive effect worldwide, with feminist organizations across the world supporting Gisèle Pelicot and international figures issuing statements in her support.

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

In a separate case, a 46-year-old man in Normandy was sentenced 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 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 handling of rape. Several critical reports since the first trial have indicated that the system continues to disappoint rape complainants on a large scale.

This year, the European Court of Human Rights condemned France for “not safeguarding” 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 did not act to protect her dignity “by permitting the use of moralising 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 attached to 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 proceeding to trial remains alarmingly small, with only 3.3% of complaints resulting in convictions.

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

“This legal battle 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 missing in France, and major flaws [in the justice system],” said Anne-Cécile Mailfert of the Fondation des Femmes.

Separately, parliament is currently considering incorporating 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 tolerance of assault to a culture of consent.”

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