Prisoner of conscience and atheist Ibtissame “Betty” Lachgar has now been imprisoned for a full year in Morocco for the “crime” of “insulting Allah.” She has a year and a half to go in her 30-month sentence as her health deteriorates and she remains unable to access the surgery that she urgently needs.
“For more than a year, Betty has been separated from her family, her community, her work and the life she built,” reports Shelley Segal of the Free Betty Coalition. “We are incredibly grateful to every single person who has continued to speak out, organize, contact decision-makers, engage the media and keep Betty’s case visible.”
At the time of the first anniversary of Betty’s initial arrest on Aug. 10 (which preceded her conviction by a month), supporters took action in Morocco, France and other countries with protests, public statements, press activity and solidarity actions.
Recent weeks have brought further important news coverage and advocacy attention, including from the admirably secular-minded Moroccan publication Telquel, which published an article, “One year behind bars,” that quotes her sister Siham: “Faced with this absolute emergency, political or legal debates have no place. It is a purely humanitarian appeal for help that I am launching today.”
Betty has a rare form of bone cancer and has a prosthesis in her left arm. Surgery on it was scheduled for September 2025, when she was already incarcerated after a rushed trial. U.S. orthopedia surgeon Dr. Neil C. Vining notes that the only appropriate treatment is the placement of a total humeral megaprosthesis, similar to the procedure scheduled before Betty’s arrest and incarceration, by the team of French specialists that has treated her for 30 years.
A photo taken of Betty with a T-shirt bearing a version of a feminist slogan saying “Allah is lesbian,” which Betty never wore in Morocco, is what brought her criminal conviction. A Moroccan law passed last year permits alternative forms of punishments for certain prison sentences. Betty’s attorney, Ghizlane Mamouni, notes that the law would allow Betty to pay a fixed sum for each day of the sentence she has been given instead of her serving the full term.
The New World, a U.K.-based publication, observes in a recent article, “The woman who’s too dangerous for her own supporters” that “a Moroccan activist named Betty has ended up in jail. Male activists get public outcry and petitions of support — but not her. She gets silence.” The journal quotes Mamouni as observing that “Betty is the first woman in the history of Morocco to be incarcerated for an act of feminist activism.”
Andrea Bolaños Vargas, U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, has publicly called for Betty’s immediate release and the urgent provision of specialized and appropriate medical care. Her intervention comes as Betty’s health crisis continues to worsen and adds an important international voice to the humanitarian call for urgent action.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is working closely with the Free Betty Coalition.
“Thank you for continuing to stand with Betty and with all of us working for her release,” say FFRF Co-Presidents Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, who have met with Betty at many international freethought conferences and hold her in the highest regard for her secular and feminist advocacy.
The Free Betty Coalition asks individuals and groups to amplify the U.N. special rapporteur’s statement (here in French and here in English) through your own networks to keep her situation visible.
Segal of the Free Betty Coalition notes that the next phase of the work to free Betty involves “a coordinated international strategy.” Individuals wanting to help do not need existing government relationships to participate. A new one-page humanitarian case summary outlining Betty’s current medical crisis and the urgency of immediate action is now available to share with elected representatives, journalists and advocates.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to defending the constitutional principle of separation between state and church and educating the public on matters relating to nontheism. With about 41,000 members, FFRF is the largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics and humanists) in North America. For more information, visit ffrf.org.
