Moroccan lesbian Ibtissam “Betty” Lachgar has been sentenced to 2.5 years in prison and fined nearly €5,000 for blasphemy in September 2025, after posting a photo wearing a t-shirt that read “Allah is lesbian”. Before her arrest, she spoke out about the backlash to the photo, saying she endured “three days of online harassment and thousands of threats of rape and death, and calls for execution and stoning over using a well-known feminist slogan.”
Lachgar is a long term radical feminist and abolitionist activist, having co-founded the Alternative Movement for Individual Liberties (MALI), a feminist, universalist, secularist and pro-choice movement in Morocco in 2009.
Lachgar told the judge that the photo was taken in May 2025, during a European anti-patriarchy campaign, when she participated took part in a London protest. “I was not referring to Allah in Islam specifically—the concept of God varies from one religion to another, in Islam, Judaism, and Christianity—nor did I wear the shirt in Morocco. I wasn’t even in Morocco when I posted the photo.” Lachgar explained, citing the right to freedom of expression. The slogan itself has roots in feminist and LGBT activist history.
Suffering from cancer, Lachgar requires urgent surgery, originally scheduled for September. Without treatment she risks having her left arm amputated. Lachgar is being held in solitary confinement in Al Arjat prison despite no reason being presented for this additional punishment.
Lachgar’s legal team has demanded urgent release on humanitarian grounds, but courts have repeatedly denied bail.
Naoufal Bouamri, head of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, warned that “Ibtissam’s health and psychological condition require, from a legal and humanitarian perspective, that she be monitored as a free woman. Legal alternatives like keeping her from travel or providing bail would allow her to undergo treatment in appropriate conditions.”
Lachgar’s case has sparked outrage among human rights groups, who see her imprisonment as part of a broader crackdown on free expression and lesbian visibility in Morocco. Her supporters had hoped for release or the application of newly implemented alternative penalties.
An appeal is underway.
Further reading: https://medfeminiswiya.net/2025/09/04/moroccan-activist-ibtissam-lachgar-held-in-solitary-confinement-health-in-crisis/?lang=en& and https://www.newarab.com/news/morocco-arrests-feminist-activist-over-blasphemy (Sources)
Listening to Lesbians 