Giselle Peliko: Her face became a graffiti against sexual violence

The French press characterizes her as a symbol against her. Giselle Pelico calm, decisive, with her characteristic sunglasses and her frame of hair and always with her head high stands against 51 rapists, one of whom is her former husband, in Avignon’s criminal court in which the heated trial for her rapes is held for a decade. The tragic fate of Giselle Pelico makes the walls “speak”: from Liège to New York, her name and face travel, become graffiti, poster and portrait and she becomes a symbol of courage and endurance in fighting against sexual violence not only in France but throughout the world. It was the focus of the trial for the “Mazan rapes”, a “judicial earthquake” whose vibrations became felt beyond the borders of Europe. A woman who was drugged for years by her husband, Dominique Pelico, to surrender unconscious to dozens of men recruited online, completely unknown to them, to rape her. Since the beginning of the trial, on September 2, 2024, Giselle Peliko refused to conduct this closed doors and decided not to hide anything so that at last the “shame to change sides”. With this slogan Belgian influenzar Aline Dessine, with 2 million followers, presented in her TikTok account a sketch of Giselle Pelico. The inscription reads “LA HONTE CHANGE DE CAMP” (the shame changes sides). Dessine in a video she posted on TikTok explains that she does not hold copyright for the poster with Giselle Pelic, but asks, if her poster is used for commercial purposes the proceeds to be made available to the organization “M’endors pas”, which was founded and “run” by Giselle Peliko’s daughter, Caroline Darian, for victims of rape with chemical submission, that is, when the rapist drugged the victim unaware to abuse it. But besides a poster, Giselle Peliko also became graffiti on a Paris wall. The artist of the Maca street painted on a wall in the southern suburb of Paris Gentilly the face of Giselle Pelico and next to the iconic phrase “Pour que la honte change de camp”. 34-year-old street artist stated that Giselle Pelico’s rape case has moved her. See this post on Instagram. “We distance ourselves from the idea (with the Pelic case) that rapists are monsters, unusual beings, that emerge from a dark alley to attack women. With this trial we see how our colleagues, our brothers, our neighbors, our friends, with only one common clue, are men, and for the victim he said: “She is facing with strength what is happening to her, facing her husband, the 50 other defendants, the media eye from around the world”. The Peliko case and the historical trial of Giselle rapists have crossed across the border of France since the trial covers journalists from around the world. The collective on women’s rights “Feminist Collages NYC”, based in New York, posted on its Instagram website for Giselle Pelico. “We are on Giselle Peliko’s side,” says the relevant post. The husband rapist would not have been caught had he not been caught for the more “minor” crime of filming up women’s skirts. Nothing but disgust for all of them. — feminist_collages_nyc (@CollagesNyc) “The husband rapist would not have been arrested if he hadn’t been caught for the least significant offense of video surveillance under female skirts. Nothing but disgust for all of them,” the post writes. The collective character characterises Giselle Pelician heroine, who chose the trial to be public while stressing that we should not forget that the victim testified that, although externally it seems possible, internally feels “eric”. Finally, in Greece, artist Katerina Karali illustrated a portrait of Giselle for an article in the press. “It is not just a survivor,” says the text, “but a heroine speaking on behalf of all angry and ashamed women.”