Gisèle Pelicot, a sentence that applies to all women

The first thoughts of Gisèle Pelicot went to her three children, David, Caroline and Florian, to her grandchildren 'because they are the future and it is for them that I have led this fight', and 'to my daughters-in-law and all the other families touched by this drama. I think of the unacknowledged victims. I want you to know that we share the same struggle'. The courage with which Gisèle Pelicot decided to face public life after the discovery of what her ex-husband had done over a ten-year period - Dominique Pelicot had given his ex-wife drugs that rendered her unconscious so that at least fifty men (those that the police were able to identify) could rape her in their own home - was the distinguishing feature of thetrial that has shocked French public opinion in recent months. And which yesterday sanctioned the conviction in first instance to the maximum sentence of 20 years for aggravated rape of her ex-husband. All the other defendants were also sentenced to lower sentences, which are already causing discussion due to their lightness.

The choice of Gisèle Pelicot - who decided to keep her husband's surname even after the divorce - to hold the hearings open-door, not to hide behind anonymity and to allow the courtroom view of the recordings of the rapes she suffered was greeted with great support from the French community, especially the female community, which accompanied her at all stages of the trial. Numerous people outside the courtroom, numerous banners in support of her and of the revolutionary battle she chose to become the body and voice of: transferring guilt and shame from the victim to the perpetrator. Proving to be a reference for all women in the same situation and reaffirming that even the father of your children, the man you slept with every night, cannot arrogate to himself the freedom to hurt you, with the justification of being 'his property'.

In Italy, Pelicot's decision to make her case collective brought to mind the Verona trial of 1976, a piece of judicial history that marked a before and an after. A rape trial took place - for the first time and thanks to the battles of feminist movements - open doors, the personal became political and the prosecution no longer pointed the finger at the victim, guilty of 'having been raped', but at the man who had abused her. Or again the much more famous Latina trial of 1979, when the RAI cameras entered the courtroom and delivered Tina Lagostena Bassi's powerful harangue to the public at home and to the theatres. Reiterating that she was 'not a defender of the injured party but an accuser of the accused', the lawyer condemned a culture so imbued with sexism that it often adulterated the modus operandi and judgments of the investigators.

Right up to the present day and the case of Giulia Cecchettin, which has brought gender violence back to the centre of public debate and restored to women the courage to take to the streets to make themselves heard, even on behalf of those who no longer have a voice. Pushing for deep reflection in two directions: on the one hand, the need not to recognise the fight against violence against women in the 'hunt for the stranger' because, data in hand, many of the feminicides take place within the walls of the home, at the hands of the boyfriend, husband or ex-partner who does not give up at the end of an affair or at the idea of no longer being able to exercise his power over his partner. Unsuspected subjects, in the eyes of society. On the other hand, the urgency of insisting - especially in schools and among young people - on education to consent, accompanying the new generations on a path that, in behaviour and language, can become a drive for a social and cultural change that is more necessary than ever.