Moroccan Singer Saad Lamjarred’s Mental Health Questioned After Rape Conviction

Saad Lamjarred suffers from "sexual masochism disorder," Tarek El Shennawi claimed the day after the singer was found guilty by the Assize Court in Paris of raping and assaulting Laura Prioul in a hotel room in the capital in October 2016. "He is sick with masochism and tortures women. [...] He is kind and compassionate, but when crimes, allegations and trials are repeated, I don’t think this is the final judgment of the court," he added.

But the Arab film critic seems to be mistaken in his terminology. According to the MSD manual, "sexual masochism consists of acts in which a person experiences sexual excitement from being humiliated, beaten, tied up or assaulted in any other way. Sexual masochism disorder is a sexual masochism that causes significant distress or significantly impairs daily functioning."

Addressing the issue, some online media have estimated that El Shennawi may have chosen his words poorly and confused the terminology. According to them, he wanted to use the term "sadism," which means finding sexual pleasure in inflicting pain, suffering or humiliation on others.