Moroccan activist jailed for ‘Allah Is a Lesbian’ shirt may lose arm
Betty Lachgar’s untreated prison injuries may require amputation.
The U.K.’s Daily Mail and Washington, D.C.-based Metro Weekly reported the news. Excerpts from the Metro Watch report are below:
Ibtissame “Betty” Lachgar, a Moroccan lesbian activist jailed after posting a photo of herself wearing a T-shirt reading “Allah is a lesbian,” may have to have her arm amputated as her health reportedly deteriorates in prison.
Lachgar, 50, was sentenced last September to two-and-a-half years in prison after authorities deemed the Facebook post “offensive to Islam.”
“In Morocco, I walk around with T-shirts bearing messages against religions, Islam, etc.,” Lachgar wrote in the post’s caption. “You tire us with your sanctimoniousness, your accusations. Yes, Islam, like any religious ideology, is fascist, phallocratic and misogynistic.”
Moroccan law criminalizes insults to Islam, the monarchy, or incitement against the country’s territorial integrity, with penalties of up to five years in prison and fines of 500,000 dirhams ($136,130). But Lachgar’s lawyers argue her conviction contradicts Morocco’s 2011 constitution and a United Nations treaty protecting freedom of expression.
A bone cancer survivor with a prosthesis between her left shoulder and elbow, Lachgar has reportedly sustained a fractured elbow while imprisoned at Salé prison on the outskirts of Rabat. Amnesty International has previously alleged that prisoners there have suffered physical abuse and torture at the hands of guards.
Family and lawyers are calling for Lachgar’s urgent release, saying her injury was not properly treated and that she may need her arm amputated without specialist care.
Lachgar has reportedly spent the past six months sleeping on a floor without a mattress in a cold cell with a broken window, according to Avaaz, a U.S.-based nonprofit that launched a petition urging King Mohammed VI to release her. The petition has garnered [about 380,000] signatures, making it the largest targeting Moroccan authorities in the past decade, according to Avaaz.
“The decline in Ibtissame Lachgar’s health is alarming. Her prosthesis has completely dislodged and she’s only being treated with paracetamol for that and the fractured elbow she has sustained during her detention, despite urgently requiring complex surgery,” Ghizlane Mamounti, one of Lachgar’s lawyers, told the Daily Mail.
A psychologist and longtime activist, Lachgar is a co-founder of the Alternative Movement for Individual Freedoms, which campaigns for personal liberties, including abortion access and same-sex marriage. Her advocacy for women’s rights, LGBTQ equality, and freedom of expression has frequently put her at odds with Moroccan authorities.
Lachgar wore the T-shirt that led to her blasphemy conviction in a 2022 Facebook post as an act of solidarity with two LGBTQ activists in Iran who were sentenced to death that same year after being accused of promoting homosexuality, promoting Christianity, and communicating with media hostile to the Islamic Republic.
“By keeping Betty in solitary confinement, she is being treated like a violent criminal when her only ‘crime’ is having worn…a T-shirt bearing a slogan in support of two Iranian women sentenced to death,” her lawyer Mamouni said. “In this, she is the victim of a double injustice — an illegal conviction under the Constitution and international agreements, and detention conditions that, given her disability, are inhumane and degrading.”
“This punishment isn’t about her actions, but about what she stands for,” Siham Lachgar, Ibtissame’s sister, said in a statement. “It shows that, even today, you can be jailed simply for thinking differently. Every day she remains behind bars is another injustice to her, and another nail in the coffin of freedom.”
In 2012, as part of her pro-choice advocacy, Lachgar invited the Women on Waves’ abortion boat to anchor in Morocco as a symbolic protest against anti-abortion laws.
The boat, purportedly offering medical abortions as well as advice, was manned by a Dutch campaign group who advocate for reproductive rights for women in countries where abortion is not legal.
The boat started its journey from the Netherlands and was scheduled to dock at the port of Smir before it was blocked by authorities.
Melanie Motta, global campaigner at Avaaz, said: ‘Hundreds of thousands of people from 40 different countries are calling for Betty’s release. These are huge numbers, which shows the strength of feeling from an international community of individuals committed to freedom of expression. The world stands with Betty.
‘Wearing a t-shirt is not a crime, and no-one should be jailed for supporting human rights. We call on King Mohammed to free Betty now.’ …
In February, the United Nations established a working group, to examine Lachgar’s case.
