On 10 August 2025, Moroccan feminist, Ibtissame Betty Lachgar, was arrested and charged with “intentional insult to Islam or sacred symbols.” On 3 September she was found guilty, sentenced to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment and placed in solitary confinement.
Betty’s crime? She wore a T-shirt with the message, ”Allah is lesbian” — not in Morocco, but at a feminist conference in London. She was protesting the death sentence of two lesbians in Iran. The slogan on her T-shirt was an adaptation of a famous feminist message from the 1970s, “I saw God. She is black, communist, and lesbian.” According to the Moroccan state, this protest, which included social media posts, constitutes blasphemy. As soon as she returned to Rabat in August to be with her ill mother, the police came for her.
For Betty, who is a bone cancer survivor, the prison conditions can be a life sentence. Thanks to international protest, her solitary confinement ended in December. But without the specialist treatment she needs, or even a mattress to sleep on, her health continues to deteriorate. By March, the prosthetic in her left arm completely detached from her shoulder. Without urgent attention, she faces acute infection, amputation and life-threatening complications, and she’s in constant agony.
International Women’s Day rally 2026. Photo by Alison Thorne.
She was charged under Article 267.5, a law pushed through parliament in 2016 by the then governing Islamist Party of Justice and Development (PJD). For the first time, “harm to Islam,” once an offence confined to the press, was criminalised for individuals. The punishment is six months to two years, or two to five years if social media is involved. The PJD’s first attempt in 2015 was quashed by popular resistance. That year, however, 12 staff at the French satirical weekly magazine, Charlie Hebdo, were killed over the depiction of Mohammed, which triggered international debate on free speech vs blasphemy. Then, as now, Islamophobia was rife across wealthy non-Muslim countries, like France, the UK, the U.S., and Australia. Far-right and neo-Nazi groups, like Reclaim Australia and United Patriots Front here, were on the rise. This global climate of Islamophobia gave the PJD cover to argue that Morocco needed its own crackdown on “harm” to Islam. The PJD used the Hebdo attack to frame blasphemy as a national security issue. According to the new law, anyone who causes “harm” to Islam, the monarchy or Morocco’s national integrity must be punished. Morocco is one of nine countries in the world with blasphemy laws.
Betty Lachgar, co-founder of the Movement for Individual Liberties (MALI), is known for her longtime human rights activism around reproductive justice, women’s autonomy, LGBTIQA+ rights and freedom of conscience. Ghizlane Mamouni, her lawyer, says Betty is “the first Moroccan feminist to be imprisoned for an act of feminist resistance.”
Morocco has a brutal record on all these fronts. The Penal Code outlaws abortion, unless carried out by a licensed doctor and deemed necessary for the woman’s life or health. Disseminating information related to abortion, or publicly speaking about it, is also a crime — punishable up to two years in prison. Options left for so many women are backyard abortions or forced pregnancies. Extramarital sex (for women) and homosexuality are also criminal, carrying prison sentences.
Allah, Al-Watan, Al-Malik. As Morocco’s motto expresses, “God, Nation and King” are indivisible — its laws ensuring that no “harm” comes to any of them. The same Article 267 of the Penal Code, used to put Betty in prison, also protects the constitutional monarchy’s “territorial integrity” by criminalising human rights work in occupied Western Sahara. Anyone guilty of aiding and solidarising with this liberation struggle faces defamation, terrorism charges and harsh punishment, including life imprisonment.
There is also a new law, directed at workers, to keep this holy triumvirate intact as the economy worsens. The Organic Law on the Right to Strike No. 97.15 came into force on 24 September 2025. The law’s restrictions are so complex and tight, the sanctions so harsh, that unions say that the right to strike effectively no longer exists.
Growing international demand to free Betty. Despite the state’s crushing of dissent, the Free Betty campaign has galvanised strong international support. Already, four petitions have garnered nearly 450,000 signatures and protest emails. On International Human Rights Day in December 2025 and International Women’s Day this year, actions took place in Melbourne, London, Washington DC, New York, Paris, Madrid, Sardinia, Milan, Cagliari, and Berlin. In Melbourne, Radical Women took the fight for Betty’s freedom to Melbourne’s IWD rally. Australia Unions for Western Sahara and Ballarat Regional Trades and Labour Council are also supporting the campaign.
The Free Betty campaign is calling for her immediate release, the repeal of Article 267.5 and restrictions on freedom of expression. Follow the campaign at freebetty.org for updates and calls to action.
