Scientist, artist and feminist, she loves to laugh and dance as much as helping women: the Franco-Tunisian doctor of pharmacy Leïla Chaouachi, 35, has made chemical submission, a serious "public health problem", her fight.
"Our rights were never given: we won them, they will never be acquired. It is a daily resistance," the author of "Chemical Submission, to put an end to received ideas" (JC Lattès), in bookstores on Wednesday, told AFP in her crystal-clear voice.
Chemical submission is the act of administering, without the knowledge of the person, 8 times out of 10 a woman, for criminal purposes – rape, pedocriminality – a substance called “love potion” in fairy tales, or “date rape drug” (GHB) by the general public, she recalls.
In reality, it is very often a drug (benzodiazepines, antihistamines, painkillers, opioids…) administered by a relative in the domestic setting, as shown in the Mazan trial, where Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging his wife Gisèle in order to rape her and have her raped by dozens of strangers.
"I don't believe we will ever be able to make violence disappear. But we can reduce its impact as much as possible and ensure that it does not go unpunished: public policies are effective," says the pharmacologist, an expert with the French National Agency for Medicines and Health Products Safety (ANSM) and rapporteur for the national inquiry into chemical submission.
The defense of women's rights, the native of Sidi Bou Said inherited from a grandmother who was head of social workers at the Family Planning in Tunis, whom she did not know but with whom she feels close – named Kmar, "the moon", while Leila means "the night" – and from a pharmacist mother to whom her thesis is dedicated.
But also from a filmmaker father who warned her, without uttering the words "drugs" or "rape", before her "first outing without parents" at 14: "Leila, nobody offers you a drink! If you leave your drink unattended, you throw it away."
At university, the "shock" of a course on chemical submission revealed her calling. And her specialization in forensic science confronted her with femicides and infanticides: bodies "drowned, burned, mutilated... to the point of nausea."
– “Everything belongs to women”
Then “life takes over again” and “joy returns: the joy of dancing. Of singing. Uninhibited and happy,” she recounts. Just like at the listening platform of the Crafs (Reference Center on Substance-Facilitated Aggression), created at the end of 2024, where “the excellent atmosphere is non-negotiable.”
Five female pharmacologists, including herself, answer calls from victims and professionals, and a "strong sense of solidarity" protects them from "extremely harrowing" accounts: rape, incest, domestic violence… Sometimes the victim remembers the assault, sometimes not: toxicological analysis will confirm what dizziness, nausea, and drowsiness have suggested.
Pianist Leïla Chaouachi "recharges her batteries" by singing Anne Sylvestre, Barbara and Brassens in a "small recital". She also writes and directs, with her company Orior, plays on the themes of gender and the body.
Better training for healthcare workers, demanding a national campaign on the criminal use of substances, advocating for "solidarity vigilance"... The task is immense and an experiment launched by the government in three regions, giving access to reimbursed toxicological analyses without prior filing of a complaint, marks progress.
There is no shortage of "allies" in the "phenomenal work": associations, feminist groups... and personalities like Ghada Hatem-Gantzer, gynecologist behind the Women's Houses, Caroline Darian (daughter of Gisèle Pelicot), founder of the association M'endors pas, Sandrine Josso, MP who just obtained the conviction of ex-senator Joël Guerriau for drugging her in order to rape her.
If Leïla Chaouachi will never give up, she says, it is because "everything belongs to women: the street, the night, the party, encounters with strangers... there is no question of giving it up."
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