Moroccan LGBTQ+ Activist Jailed for Provocative Islam T-Shirt, Faces Years in Prison

Ibtissame Lachgar is paying dearly for her controversial post. The public prosecutor’s office announced her detention on Tuesday for "offense against the Islamic religion" after the publication on social networks of a photo deemed "offensive towards God". She had posted at the end of July a photo of herself wearing a t-shirt displaying a controversial phrase ("Allah is a lesbian"). This publication provoked strong reactions on social networks in Morocco. Faced with the controversy, Lachgar did not back down. "In Morocco, I walk around with t-shirts with messages against religions, Islam, etc. We make collages with @MALImaroc You tire us with your pieties, your accusations. Yes, Islam, like any religious ideology, is FASCIST. PHALLOCRATIC AND MISOGYNISTIC," she fumed angrily on X. In another post, she is surprised that this phrase (Allah is a lesbian) has earned her thousands of sexist insults, rape and death threats, calls for murder, stoning...

On Sunday, the feminist activist was arrested and then placed in custody. She is "being prosecuted for offense against the Islamic religion and placed in detention". According to Article 267-5 of the Moroccan Penal Code, under which she is being prosecuted, she faces six months to two years in prison for having "offended the Muslim religion". The sentence can be increased to five years’ imprisonment if the offense is committed in public, "including by electronic means".

For the time being, no information has been provided on the date of her trial, which should open before the court of first instance in Rabat where Lachgar was brought on August 12, 2025, two days after her arrest.