A Moroccan court on Wednesday sentenced feminist activist Ibtissame Lachgar to two and a half years in prison for “offending Islam,” her lawyer confirmed to AFP, noting that an appeal will be filed.
Lachgar, a 50-year-old clinical psychologist and well-known women’s rights campaigner, was arrested last month after posting a photo of herself online wearing a T-shirt that read “Allah is lesbian” in Arabic.
The Rabat court handed her a 30-month jail term along with a fine of 50,000 dirhams (about \$5,500), defence lawyer Mohamed Khattab said.
The ruling sparked tears from her relatives and friends present in court, according to an AFP correspondent.
Hakim Sikouk, head of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, denounced the sentence as “shocking” and a direct “attack on freedom of expression.”
Lachgar had previously explained to the court that the slogan on her shirt was a long-standing feminist expression used to challenge sexism and violence against women, insisting it had “no link to the Islamic faith.”
