Decades after a landmark rape trial in France, the Pelicot case shows ‘shame has changed sides’

Agnès Fichot will never forget that day in 1977 when, just a few years out of law school, she picked up the phone to call the office of Gisèle Halimi, France’s most renowned lawyer. The decision was a natural one: she wanted to work with her, it was as simple as that. She admired Halimi’s courage, talent and audacity. She respected her ability to ignite major social debates that changed culture, mindsets and even the law. Halmini embodied the fight for women’s rights with passion and unwavering commitment. She had saved the life of Djamila Boupacha, a young activist with the National Liberation Front (FLN), by exposing the torture and rape she suffered during the Algerian war. In 1971, she signed the Manifesto of the 343 women who said they had had illegal abortions, despite the legal risks. In 1972, Halimi had turned the Bobigny trial – a case to acquit a teenage girl who had illegally terminated her pregnancy after being raped – into a landmark case for abortion rights, paving the way for the Veil law two years later, which legalized abortion. It was with that insubordinate lawyer that Fichot wanted to work with – no one else.

The phone call was friendly, the voice on the other end was charming but rushed. Fichot, then 28, described her first internship with the famous lawyer Albert Naud, a former member of the Resistance and a fierce opponent of the death penalty, which he wrote a book about. She explained her determination to work on major women’s issues. It wasn’t enough to secure an appointment, but the door wasn’t totally closed. A few weeks later, the young woman called Halimi again. She was persistent, they chatted and, this time, Halimi invited her to visit her office on Rue Saint-Dominique in Paris’ 7^th arrondissement. And then…

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