FRENCH CONNECTION!

SOCIAL media star Mai Jeremiah’s decision to waive her anonymity, as is usually the case when it comes to victims of rape and sexual attacks, has drawn comparisons with Frenchwoman Gisèle Pelicot whose savage attacks, at the hands of more than 50 men, caught the attention of the world.

Mai Jeremiah went on social media to narrate her story and, at times, can be seen to be breaking down as she describes how she was allegedly raped.

She claimed the suspected rapists could “not stop” harming her.

She has already managed to woo many women, including Mai TT, into her corner.

The two men she accuses of raping her − Thabo Blessing Dube, 27, and Martin Charlie, 25, − appeared before Harare regional magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa yesterday.

Gofa ordered the State to justify its consent to bail in the rape case.

The two were not asked to plead when they appeared in court charged with rape.

The State told the court that it was not opposed to bail but Gofa rejected the consent and said the duo was facing a serious offence and ordered the State to justify its position.

The two will be back in court tomorrow for the determination of bail.

The court heard that on April 9, Dube contacted the Mai Jeremiah and invited her for a meeting but they failed to meet on the day in question.

On April 30, the influencer said she received a Whatsapp message from Charlie, who invited her for a meeting, and they met along Samora Machael and he drove to number 11 Frank Johnson, Eastlea.

Charlie allegedly went into the building pretending to go and see his boss and he came back a few minutes later.

He came back with a certain lady called Sbahle and they got into the car and drove to the Harare CBD where Sbahle dropped off.

They drove back to Eastlea where he parked at number 15 Frank Johnson Avenue.

The influencer, according to the State, was told to go inside the room where the meeting was supposed to be held but was shocked to see a bed.

When she turned back, she claims she saw Charlie locking the door and Dube entered the room using the other door, locked it and started laughing.

She cried for help but was silenced by Dube who told her not to anger Charlie and ordered her to remove her clothes.

She claims they took turns to rape her before they threatened her while ordering a taxi for her.

She was drugged and raped by dozens of people like what happened to Gisele, Mai Jeremiah’s decision to waive her anonymity by openly discussing her ordeal on social media has drawn comparisons with the Frenchwoman.

Gisele’s decision to waive her anonymity and throw this trial into the open − in her words, making “shame swap sides” from the victim to the rapist − turned the 72-year-old into a feminist icon.

Her husband Dominique Pelicot plied his wife with tranquilising drugs and sleeping pills without her knowledge, from 2011 to 2020, crushed them into powder and added them to her food and drink.

Gisèle suffered memory loss and blackouts because of the drugs and Dominique would invite dozens of men, who numbered more than 50, to rape her. Judges in the French city of Avignon sentenced Dominique to 20 years in prison for aggravated rape in December last year.

Of the 50 co-defendants found guilty, 46 were found guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape, and two guilty of sexual assault.

Dominique was eventually caught after a security guard reported him to police for taking photographs under women’s skirts in a supermarket.

Dominique was further convicted of taking indecent images of his daughter, Caroline, and his daughters-in-law, Aurore and Celine.

“I am a rapist,” he told the judges. “I acknowledge all the facts (of the case) in their entirety.”

The case caught the attention of the world and, during the trial, each morning, the queues would form before dawn.

Groups of women stood in the autumn chill outside Avignon’s glass and concrete courthouse.

Some brought flowers.

All wanted to be in place to applaud Gisèle as she walked, purposefully, up the steps and through the glass doors.

A few shouted: “We’re with you, Gisèle,” and “Be brave.”

Most then stayed on, hoping to secure seats in the courthouse’s public overflow room from where they could watch proceedings on a television screen.

They said they were there to bear witness to the courage of a grandmother, as she sat quietly in court, surrounded by dozens of her rapists.

“I see myself in her,” said Isabelle Munier, 54. “One of the men on trial was once a friend of mine. It’s disgusting.”

“She’s become a figurehead for feminism,” said Sadjia Djimli, 20.

But they came for other reasons too.

Above all, it seemed, they were looking for answers.

As France digested the implications of its largest rape trial, it was clear that many French women − and not just those at the courthouse in Avignon− were pondering two fundamental questions.

The first question was visceral.

What might it say about French men − some would say all men − that 50 of them, in one small, rural neighbourhood, were apparently willing to accept a casual invitation to have sex with an unknown woman as she lay, unconscious, in a stranger’s bedroom?

The second question emerged from the first: how far would this trial go in helping to tackle an epidemic of sexual violence and of drug-facilitated rape, and in challenging deeply held prejudices and ignorance about shame and consent?

France’s Institute of Public Policies released figures in 2024 showing that on average, 86% of complaints of sexual abuse and 94% of rapes were either not prosecuted or never came to a trial, in the period between 2012 and 2021.

On September 21, a group of prominent French men, including actors, singers, musicians and journalists, wrote a public letter that was published in Liberation newspaper, arguing that the Pelicot case proved that male violence “is not a matter of monsters”.

“It is a matter of men, of Mr Everyman,” the letter said. “All men, without exception, benefit from a system that dominates women.” − H-Metro Reporter/BBC

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