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The French woman, who survived nearly a ten years of rapes by scores of men after being drugged by her former spouse, is expected to attend court in France once more this Monday. This comes after one of the men convicted of raping her launched an appeal, leading to a new hearing.

Pelicot became a feminist icon after opting to forgo her anonymity during the legal proceedings involving her ex-husband and 50 other men. Her lawyer, Antoine Camus, stated 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.

“Her presence is essential to make clear that a rape is a rape, that there is no such thing as a minor assault,” Camus told reporters.

Husamettin Dogan, a 44-year-old builder sentenced to nine years in prison for raping Pelicot, has challenged his conviction. The first trial revealed that Dogan contacted her then-husband through a chatroom and drove to their home the same night in June 2019, informing 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 a form of role-play. “I’m not a rapist, that’s too difficult 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 withdrew over time, leaving only one appeal proceeding.

Dominique Pelicot, described as one of the most notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced 20 years in prison for administering drugs to his then-wife and inviting numerous men to rape her at their home in southern France over nearly a decade of marriage.

Testimony in last year’s trial disclosed that Dominique Pelicot had crushed sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication into his wife’s mashed potato or drinks, then invited men to assault her in the town of Mazan in the French countryside. A total of 50 other men were convicted in the case.

Now serving a prison sentence in isolation, Dominique Pelicot is scheduled to appear as a witness at the appeal. He is likely to repeat his previous testimony: “I admit to being a perpetrator and all the charged men in this room are rapists.”

Gisèle Pelicot, a 72-year-old former logistics manager, had demanded that the initial trial be held publicly to raise awareness about drug-induced rape. “It’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them,” she stated in court.

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

However, campaigners and attorneys noted that the case highlighted how widespread and frequent 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 unconscious on multiple instances 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 increasing 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 large scale.

This year, the European Court of Human Rights condemned France for “not safeguarding” the rights of three teenagers who reported rape.

One teenager who accused several firefighters of abuse was found to have suffered “re-traumatization 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 threefold increase in rape complaints in France since the global #MeToo movement in 2016, the number of cases proceeding to trial remains dangerously low, with only 3.3% of complaints resulting in convictions.

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

“This legal battle was a form of electric shock, it allowed a lot of people to talk about rape and spousal assault. However, there has not really been a political response. There is a great deal missing in France, and serious dysfunction [in the justice system],” said Anne-Cécile Mailfert of the Fondation des Femmes.

Separately, parliament is currently considering adding 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 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 emphasized that wording by itself is insufficient to address persistent “failures” of the entire French state toward rape survivors. “We need a revolution in the system to improve how we deal with rape,” she said.