Juliette: dismantling prejudices about disability

Taking part in the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc when you are a are a blind woman with autism and Asperger’s: an impossible challenge? No, because this is exactly the “crazy challenge” that Juliette of Team 240 (Juliette LEPAGE / Dominique CAPDEVIELLE / Sandrine LEPAGE) is about to tackle head on. Together Juliette, her mother Sandrine (whom she likes to call her “helper”) and Dominique, a former firefighter colleague of her father’s, are taking part in the Rally adventure.

The idea was born during the first lockdown. “I wanted to take on a new challenge, so I registered for the rally and then went to Sandrine and said, You have a heavy vehicle license; let’s do it“, recalls the youngest participant in this 30^th edition, aged 20. The adventure is filled with important symbols from the life of the young Gazelle, who is no stranger to challenges, having already hiked several kilometres of the GR20 trail in her native Corsica. The first and foremost: taking part aboard a fire truck. Dominique is a professional firefighter, Sandrine is the wife of a firefighter and a former volunteer firefighter herself, while Juliette “was brought up in that world with all the values that come with it”.

Symbols and values

But that’s not the only thing that pushed the young woman to take up the challenge. “When I was little, I was fascinated by gazelles, the animal. I really admired the freedom of their movements. That’s one of the reasons I decided to do this particular rally and not another“, says Juliette. “When you’re constantly restricted and dependent on others, it’s a powerful symbol to become a Gazelle“, adds her mother. For Sandrine, taking part in the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc also means “showing that women with disabilities shouldn’t be infantilized, because Juliette is a woman first and foremost, and people tend not to see her that way“.

Team 240 (Juliette LEPAGE / Dominique CAPDEVIELLE / Sandrine LEPAGE) is proud to uphold these feminist values. They have decided to call themselves “Mirage” for the occasion, for several reasons. “Because we’re likely to see some“, “because it’s the name of a magnificent military airplane“, “because mirage contains the letters ‘rag’, which are the initials of the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc“, lists Juliette, adding, jokingly: “Because it’s a visual effect that I won’t be able to see“.

This adventure is all about Juliette, who did much of the work to raise the necessary budget. But she has no intention of putting pressure on herself regarding the competition. “I’ve come here with no expectations, and I’ll see what the desert has to offer“, concludes the young Gazelle, full of enthusiasm.