A street artist has painted portraits of Gisele Pelicot on walls in Lille, a northern French city who became well-known after her ex-husband was put on trial for recruiting multiple strangers to assault her.
The 71-year-old woman has become a symbol of feminism in France since the trial of Dominique Pelicot and many others started last month in the southern city of Avignon.
Dominique Pelicot, also 71, is in the dock with 50 other men aged between 26 and 74, many of whom have denied the accusations of raping his then wife Gisele.
The case has sparked horror, protests and a debate about male violence in French society.
Gisele Pelicot has attended most of the proceedings, usually wearing round sunglasses and her hair in a trademark bob.
That look is instantly recognisable in the portraits that the collage artist who goes by the name "LaDame Quicolle" (The Lady that Sticks") has posted across Lille.
The art is part of a series of portraits by the 38-year-old artist started in 2021 and depicting women who have become victims of rape, child prostitution and domestic violence.
Gisele Pelicot's nearly life-sized portraits are accompanied by the inscription, "Portrait 22, Gisele P., guardians of the street. How can we empower women?"
LaDame Quicolle told AFP that the point of the pictures is to "break the silence" and "fill the No Girl's Land, these places where not many women go at night".
She said that Gisele Pelicot -- whom she has not met -- "opened her story up to the public, through interviews and statements" and thus allowed her, the artist, "to understand her, to know her, to immerse myself in her as a subject".
LaDame Quicolle is not the first artist to work with Gisele Pelicot's image.
Aline Dessine, a Belgian graphic artist with 2.5 million TikTok followers, used it for a poster launching a demonstration in support of rape victims.
Maca, another artist, produced a fresco of Gisele Pelicot in the Parisian suburb of Gentilly, which included a message calling for "shame to switch sides".
In Avignon, where the trial is taking place, a group known as "The Avignon Amazons" created a collage featuring Gisele Pelicot's statement from the trial: "I have felt humiliated since entering this courtroom."
Source: Khaleej Times
Bd-pratidin English/Afia
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