By Emmanuel Nduka
A Moroccan feminist activist, Ibtissame Lachgar, has been detained and says she has received threats of stoning after posting a photograph of herself wearing a T-shirt bearing words described as blasphemous.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Rabat Court of First Instance confirmed in a statement on Sunday that Lachgar was being held as part of an investigation into the post.
“Following a woman’s posting of a photo on her social media account, which depicts her wearing a shirt with phrases offensive to the divine, along with a caption insulting Islam, the public prosecutor ordered an investigation,” the statement read, according to Mail Online.
“Due to its urgency, the subject has been placed under police custody in accordance with the law”.
In the image, the activist, who is also a developmental psychologist, can be seen smiling with her hands on her hips. Lachgar co-founded the Mouvement alternatif pour les libertés individuelles (MALI), which campaigns for abortion rights, same-sex marriage, and other individual freedoms.
On X (formerly Twitter), she wrote that the inscription on the shirt had earned her “thousands of sexist insults, rape and death threats, calls for murder, stoning, etc. for three days,” claiming that “99% come from men” and describing them as “proud of their misogynistic violence based on a religious framework”.
Defending her actions in another post, she said, “In Morocco, I walk around with T-shirts bearing messages against religions, Islam, etc. You tire us with your sanctimoniousness, your accusations. Yes, Islam, like any religious ideology, is fascist, phallocratic and misogynistic”.
The July 31 post sparked fierce backlash online, with some social media users calling for her arrest and describing her as a threat to peace, sovereignty, and Moroccan values.
Under Moroccan law, criticism of Islam, the monarchy, or the country’s territorial integrity is prohibited and can lead to prison sentences.
The law also criminalises attempts to shake a Muslim’s faith or convert them, punishable by three to six months in prison and a fine.
Lachgar is known for organising controversial protests, including a 2013 “kiss-in” outside Morocco’s parliament in support of teenagers arrested for posting a kissing photo online, and a 2012 campaign to bring the Dutch “Women on Waves” abortion boat to Morocco, which authorities blocked.
Her detention has reignited debates in Morocco over freedom of expression, secularism, and the limits of religious criticism in public discourse.
