Moroccan Feminists Face Death Threats Amid Family Code Reform Debate

Among them are the former president of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), Khadija Ryadi, the cartoonist Zainab Fasiki, the writer Leila Slimani, the actress Loubna Abidar, the director Nabil Ayouch and his wife, the actress and director Maryam Touzani, the journalist, actress and filmmaker Sonia Terrab, or Hajar Raissouni. All these personalities, known internationally for their fight for respect for human rights and individual freedoms in Morocco, are victims of insults and intimidation on social media for having demanded equality between men and women, according to El Español.

Ibtissam Lachgar, founder of the Alternative Movement for Individual Freedoms (MALI), was also threatened with death on Instagram. "Betty, you will die in pain, I promise you," a user wrote to her through a fake account. "You should end up in prison for conspiring against the moral principles of Moroccan Muslims. Your evil game that you are trying to play in Morocco will be denounced to the general public. And we know very well that you are engaged. A kind of hysterical feminist," another posted. The activist’s name was already on the list of Moroccan personalities threatened with death by the Islamic State in 2015, it is recalled.

The Moroccan feminists concerned have reported these death threats to the competent prosecutor’s office. "The police are taking things seriously, and will summon us," Lachgar assures, stating that these threats began after the heated debates between Islamist conservatives and progressive feminists as part of the reform of the Family Code. In a video that went viral on social media, a young Moroccan, dressed in a djellaba, calls for a gathering on the famous Jama el-Fna square in Marrakech to witness the public executions of these feminists. "Why would Jama el-Fna simply be an entertainment square? We could at least purify this land (Morocco). A square just for monkeys? We could behead that kind of (strange) people there," he said.

In addition, journalists from Morocco World News, including its director Adnane Bennis, received threats from a certain Aicha Lamrani who accuses them of "promoting feminism and atheism, accepting homosexuality, tolerating zina (extramarital sex) and normalizing abortion" and of ridiculing Islam. "You deserve to be killed. Tell your colleagues that you will all be assassinated in your office in Rabat like ’Charlie Hebdo’ in 2015. I swear to God. Be ready for the new Charlie Hebdo, God willing," she wrote. Adnane Bennis said he had filed a complaint with the Rabat court and that an investigation had been opened.