Ibtissame Lachgar
Ibtissame Lachgar is a Moroccan human rights defender and co-founder of the MALI Movement (Mouvement Alternatif pour les Libertés Individuelles). She is a strong advocate of sexual and reproductive rights, women's rights, LGBT rights, and the right to an abortion. She has been leading several campaigns on individual freedoms and freedom of religion, including a picnic in open air during ramadan to protest against article 222 of Moroccan Penal Code and the persecution of non-fasters. Ibtissame is a member of the 20 February movement in Morocco, who put pressure on the government and monarchy to make moves against corruption, human rights abuses, enforced disappearances, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention, and towards democracy, dignity and secularism.
Journalists and media workers critical of the government face harassment and arrest in some instances, and the country's press law includes prison terms for “maliciously” spreading “false information”. There are reports of torture and ill-treatment of human rights defenders in detention and activists held have been incommunicado.
