Ex-Muslims International denounces the detention of Moroccan feminist, human rights defender, and ex-Muslim activist Ibtissam “Betty” Lachgar for wearing a T-shirt proclaiming, “Allah is lesbian.”
Betty is a key figure in the global ex-Muslim movement. She co-founded MALI (Alternative Movement for Individual Liberties), a member organisation of our International Coalition of Ex-Muslims. She has been a regular and outspoken contributor to Celebrating Dissent, the largest international gathering of ex-Muslims, atheists, and freethinkers, for many years—consistently challenging theocratic oppression at great personal risk.
This grotesque arrest in 2025 is an affront to freedom of thought and expression. Blasphemy laws—medieval relics—exist not to shield people, but to protect ideas from scrutiny. They target apostates and dissenters, fuelling apostophobia—the fear, hatred, and dehumanisation of those who leave religion—by criminalising our very existence.
It is staggering hypocrisy: Betty is under arrest for a slogan on a shirt, while those issuing thousands of rape and death threats, including calls for her stoning, remain free. This is not justice—it is persecution.
To date, a petition demanding her immediate release has garnered global support (link: chng.it/bqynm9KG46). Betty was also scheduled to speak at the FiLiA2025 feminist conference in Brighton this October—a platform now denied to her because she dared to dissent.
No religion, including Islam, is above criticism—especially when its texts and laws enable regimes that execute apostates and jail critics. Ideas do not have rights—people do.
We call on Moroccan authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Ibtissam Lachgar, repeal all blasphemy laws, and protect the right to free expression for everyone, including those who reject and criticise religion.