The woman who was jailed and threatened with stoning for wearing a T-shirt saying 'Allah is a lesbian' now faces having her arm amputated as her health continues to deteriorate in Moroccan prison.
Ibtissame 'Betty' Lachgar, a feminist activist, was jailed last September and sentenced to two and a half years in prison for a Facebook post in which she wore the garment, on the grounds that it was 'offensive to Islam'.
The 50-year-old campaigner is a bone cancer survivor with a prothesis between her left shoulder and elbow, and has sustained a fractured elbow during her time so far in Salé prison, located on the outskirts of Rabat.
Lachgar's family and lawyers are calling for her urgent release after learning of a severe deterioration in her health, with doctors warning that without urgent specialist treatment, she will need to have her arm amputated.
The psychologist's lawyers have argued that her conviction contradicts Morocco’s 2011 Constitution and the country’s obligations under United Nation treaties, protecting freedom of expression.
She has spent the past six months sleeping on the floor with no mattress, in a cold cell with a broken window, according to Avaaz, a US-based nonprofit organisation which launched a petition calling for Lachgar's immediate release.
One of her lawyers, Ghizlane Mamouni, said: 'The decline in Ibtissame Lachgar's health is alarming. Her prosthesis has completely dislodged and she’s only being treated with paracetamol for that and the fractured elbow she has sustained during her detention, despite urgently requiring complex surgery.'
Lachgar wore the T-shirt for a 2022 Facebook post as an act of solidarity with two LGBTQ+ activists in Iran, who were sentenced to death that same year after being accused of promoting homosexuality, promoting Christianity and communicating with media opposed to the Islamic Republic.
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February 27, 2026
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