A woman who was handed a prison sentence for wearing a T-shirt that read ‘Allah is a lesbian’ is now facing her arm being amputated in jail, amid declining health.

Ibtissame Lachgar, a feminist activist who campaigns on women’s and LGBTQ+ issues, was arrested in August 2025 and subsequently handed a two-and-half year prison term over the T-shirt, which was judged by the authorities to be offensive to Islam.

In a post shared on social media on 31 July 2025, Lachgar is pictured wearing the garment and wrote: “In Morocco, I walk around with T-shirts bearing messages against religions, Islam, etc. You tire us with your sanctimoniousness, your accusations. Yes, Islam, like any religious ideology, is fascist, phallocratic and misogynistic.”

The post prompted condemnation and threats towards the activist, with Lachgar later writing on her Facebook page she faced “cyber bullying, thousands of threats of rape [and] death, calls for lynching and stoning”, over a “T-shirt with a well-known (hijacked) feminist slogan”.

Lachgar is one of a just a few openly atheist public figures in Morocco, a country which has blasphemy laws that criminalise any criticism of Islam, with penalties including terms of imprisonment.