In Morocco, an LGBTQI activist arrested for “attacking the Islamic religion”
Ibtissame Lachgar, known as “Betty,” a feminist activist, was taken into custody on August 10, the day after a photo of her wearing a T-shirt with comments deemed blasphemous was posted on social media. The arrest has raised concerns among human rights defenders in the kingdom.
A women's and LGBTQI rights activist was arrested on August 10 in Rabat and then taken into custody in Casablanca, reports the news website TelQuel . The arrest of "Betty," whose real name is Ibtissame Lachgar, comes after a photo of her was published on her X-rated social media account on July 31 bearing an inscription considered by the prosecution to be an "attack on the Islamic religion."
If the Moroccan media do not take up the inscription and truncate the scandalous photo, so that the reader cannot see what is written, on Betty's X network, the photo is still there and one can read “Allah [written in Arabic] is Lesbian” .
Since the publication of this photo, TelQuel indicates that, shortly before his arrest, Ibtissame Lachgar claimed to have been subjected to cyber-harassment including “ thousands of threats of rape, death, calls for lynching and stoning”.
The activist's arrest was also welcomed by the Moroccan news site Hespress , for whom the arrest of "Betty" comes very rightly following "tens of thousands of reports on digital platforms." Including the “E.Blagh” site made available by the general directorate of national security, which allows Internet users to alert
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