"Fifteen days in a cell. I find it hard to accept that I'm being punished for daring to speak out." Corporal Rose (not her real name; all those named have requested anonymity), 24, reported a rape perpetrated in May 2022 by a superior. She sent this message to us on April 30, just after leaving her commanding officer's office, where she had just been informed of her punishment. "It's absurd, I've gone from being a victim to being guilty." Guilty of having drunk alcohol on the evening of her attack, Rose was told she would be sent to "a cell, with a toilet, bars and a small courtyard for smoking" – 15 days in the "hole," as it's called in military jargon, for non-compliance with internal regulations.

Two weeks earlier, on April 12, France's Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu had spoken strong words and pledged to listen to female victims, in the face of the growing #MeToo movement within the forces. "[Speaking up] must free the victims, not condemn them," he insisted in an op-ed in Le Monde. To assess "all measures for prevention, protection of victims and punishment of aggressors," the minister has commissioned an inspection the General Inspectorate of the Armies, which is due to deliver its conclusions in early June.

In Rose's regiment, Lecornu's words "went in one ear and out the other," said Stéphane, a senior officer. "The injustice is still there, we can't take it anymore," confided the man who encouraged the young corporal to report her assault. Rose was punished, as was her comrade, Master Corporal Hélène, who claims to have been drugged and raped by the same soldier a few months earlier, in 2021. She filed a complaint in October 2023.

'Today, I'm the one at fault'

Like Rose, Hélène, 34, who was deployed in Mali and Côte d'Ivoire, was punished with seven days in a cell for drinking alcohol and entering a men-only room. It doesn't matter that she doesn't remember going in. She didn't come to her senses until morning. "There was another soldier in the room, and she was the one who told me that, during the night, he had his head between my legs while I was unconscious... And today, I'm the one at fault," she said.

According to the disciplinary investigation consulted by Le Monde, the alleged rapist denies all the facts. As for the leadership, it says that, "as long as these cases have not been dealt with by the courts, it is not possible to comment on possible sanctions concerning the crimes and offenses mentioned." The alleged attacker was punished, but only for having consumed alcohol and not having respected the rules of gender mixing in the rooms – 20 days of detention, which he "will serve in his room, as there are no more cell places," explained Hélène. It was at this moment that she broke down: "Him in his cosy bed and all of us locked up."

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