TV PKG Cullen France protests

CGTN Europe

Huge marches across France in protests against sexual violence and sexual discrimination, while the government promises new ways to tackle this abuse.  Correspondent Ross Cullen reports on the fallout from the case of Gisele Pelicot.  Read more here: https://tinyurl.com/5n6dpa36

Transcript

00:00Solidarity with women. That's the rallying call at demonstrations in France. Thousands

00:09of people joined marches across the country this weekend for protests against sexual violence

00:15and sexual discrimination.

00:20There's lots of things to change. There's the education of young boys throughout life.

00:25We have to change things. It will be hard, but it's possible. The state should really

00:30put itself to it. I was a teacher. I know what it means to educate children. There's

00:35a whole family culture, and everyone should get to it. Not just the state. Everyone.

00:45This year's demonstrations to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against

00:50Women took on a new meaning because of an ongoing mass rape trial that's shocked the

00:56country and the world. The woman at the centre of it, Gisèle Pellicot, has become a symbol

01:02of France's fight against sexual violence and the ongoing problem of drug-induced assault.

01:11This trial obviously came as a shock to the entire French population. It was a shock because

01:17of the fact that it wasn't a surprise for us, for women, gender minorities, activists,

01:23because the reality of this trial is something we've been denouncing for some time in the

01:27feminist movement.

01:30More than 50 men are on trial accused of raping Gisèle Pellicot while she laid unconscious,

01:36repeatedly drugged at the hands of her now former husband.

01:41Miss Pellicot waived her rights to anonymity, and she has attended the trial in person and

01:46in doing so she's become a feminist icon in the fight against sexual abuse.

01:52The Pellicot trial is set to conclude next month, with the defendants facing up to 20

01:57years in jail if found guilty, though activists hope the consequences for French society will

02:04last much longer than that.

02:06Ross Cullen, CGTN, Paris.

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