The case of a Parisian woman who says she was cared for for sex and repeatedly raped by 20 firefighters over a two-year period since she was 13 has divided French society. The case, which has become part of recent awkward talks between France’s think tank over age of consent, incest and exploitation, will be heard in the French Supreme Court on Wednesday. On Sunday, hundreds of women took to the streets of Paris to demand justice and put an end to what they call the cultural acceptance of the victim’s guilt and blatant rape usually disguised as consent.
The woman, now 25, who according to the French media is called ‘July’, accused all 20 firefighters from different fire stations in Paris of rape after a firefighter referred to as ‘Pierre’ assisted her when she in 2008 had a severe anxiety attack.
After that, Pierre apparently found her contact information in her medical file and started bombarding her with ‘loving messages’ that soon became sexual in nature. She says he convinced her to pull out during a video call, which she did. He then passed on her phone number to other firefighters who asked her to do the same. She wrote in her diary at the time that she was ‘terrified and paralyzed by fear’ of what had happened.
Three of the firefighters accused by the woman admitted to having sex with her, sometimes in groups and often in their full uniforms. On one occasion in November 2009, she was taken to one of the firefighters’ houses when he invited two colleagues – all three raped her in full uniform. The three are charged with ‘sexual violence’ which carries a prison sentence of just seven years. None of the men are charged with rape, which has led to 20 years in prison.
The firefighters who admit to having sex with the minor maintain that it is consensus and that the then young teenager was rather happy and even flirted with them. One of the accused said he had sex in a toilet stall in a Parisian hospital, but that he noticed ‘no signs of resistance’ or a vulnerability of the teenager.
Because France does not have an official age of consent, cases like these often come down to the victim’s victim, as lawyers work to prove that the victim was seductively dressed in some way, or in this case in such a way. acted as permission was given, such as pulling out during a video call.
France debated for years on the introduction of an age of consent for sex and in 2018 almost passed a law that would consider sex with someone under the age of 15 as rape, but the law did not pass after male groups said it would leads to an ‘assumption of guilt’ for men who were themselves victims of flirtatious women.
The woman’s mother, who spoke to the press, said she was shocked when her daughter was sexually exploited. She said in an interview that she even baked desserts for Pierre and the other firefighters who helped the then teenager with her anxiety-driven attacks, which happened to such firefighters who were called to her home 130 times in the period of two years in which the alleged rapes took place. “I thought he was the last person to do such a thing because he helped her so many times and saw how vulnerable she was,” the victim’s mother said, according to an interview in the Guardian.
Women’s groups protesting in Paris on Sunday said the case highlighted long-standing views in French society that left sexual crimes unpunished. “Every stereotype about rape is in this case: the judges and the psychiatrist say Julie is a liar, that she gave permission for sex with all the men, and that she lies to be raped because she is ashamed,” Marjolaine said. Vignola, advocate for the victim, said. .
On Sunday, Marguerite Stern, of a feminist group l’Amazone, took to the streets of Paris. “For ten years they have been fighting alone, and now thousands of feminists from all over France are joining them,” she told reporters, referring to the fact that the victim first accused the firefighters a decade ago. “We demand that the firefighters face rape and not ‘sexual assault’. This culture of misogyny must end in our courts. ”