A new type of graffiti has recently started appearing on walls in cities across France: paintings depicting a straight-backed woman with an auburn bob wearing a pair of dark sunglasses like a form of armour.

It is Gisèle Pelicot, the 71-year-old at the centre of a rape trial that has shocked and moved the public, not only in France, but around the world. Her (now former) husband of five decades has admitted to drugging and raping her and recruiting 50 other men to do so over a period of years.

Despite the trauma she has experienced, Pelicot, who this week made her closing statement in court, has become a heroine and feminist champion since the trial began in September. She refused the anonymous, closed-door trial offered to alleged rape victims in France. Instead, she threw it open to the public to expose the crimes committed by her husband — documented in macabre videos of the rapes — with the aim of giving women the courage to come forward.