“God is lesbian”. This is the message that was written on the t-shirt of feminist activist Ibtissame Lachgar, in one of her publications on X on July 31. The Moroccan prosecutor’s office announced on Sunday to have placed it in police custody. The photo was accompanied by a text qualifying Islam, “like any religious ideology”, “fascist, phallocrat and misogynist”.
The publication has aroused strong reactions on social networks, some Internet users calling for its arrest.
In a Facebook publication, Ibtissame Lachgar said he had been a victim for several days of cyberbullying and having received “thousands of threats of rape, death, calls for lynching and stoning”, for a t-shirt “with a well-known feminist slogan”.
In a statement, the King’s prosecutor near the trial court of Rabat declared on Sunday that he had ordered the opening of an investigation and the placement in police custody of the activist “in accordance with the law”, following the dissemination of this photo containing “offensive expressions towards God” and of a “text comprising an offense to the Islamic religion”. “Adequate legal measures will be taken in light of the results of the survey,” added the prosecution.
Police custody in Morocco is generally 48 hours. The prosecutor will then decide the prosecution against the accused. The Moroccan penal code provides for a sentence of six months to two years in prison and/or a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 dirhams (around 2,000 to 20,000 euros) for any attack on the Islamic religion, which can go up to five years in prison if “the outrage” is committed by a public means, including “electronics”.
