By waiving her anonymity, Gisele Pelicot has forced France to confront its rape culture and clawed back the power her attackers took from her. She says it's not out of bravery: "It's will and determination to change society. It is a crime so brutal and depraved it defies words - so outside the court, they applaud instead.
Since September, people have lined the route in Avignon clapping as Gisele Pelicot walks past. It is a wordless act of support for the year-old woman at the centre of a mass rape trial that has sent shockwaves across France.
It is a message that she, not the rapists, holds the power. An echo of Gisele's rallying cry that "shame must change sides". For four months, she has sat through the case of her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, who has admitted drugging and raping her for almost a decade and inviting other men to do the same. Follow latest: Pelicot trial sentencing - live. When Gisele walks into court now, her head is up, her eyes look ahead.
In the earlier days, she often hid behind sunglasses. Her legal team has suggested removing the glasses was about more than a change in seasons.
It marked the moment she no longer felt the need to protect herself and hide her eyes. After waiving her right to anonymity so the trial could be heard in public, Gisele's face has become one of the most recognisable of the year, graffitied on walls, held on placards at demonstrations, emblazoned on the front cover of Vogue magazine's German edition.
