Press Release
For Immediate Release – Dec 9, 2025
On Human Rights Day, December 10, activists across multiple countries will take part in the Global Mattress Action, a coordinated series of peaceful demonstrations calling for the immediate release of Moroccan feminist and human rights defender Ibtissame Betty Lachgar.
Actions will take place in cities including Milan, Paris, London, Berlin, New York, Melbourne, and others. Participants will lay down mattresses or symbolic bedding materials in public spaces to represent the inhumane conditions in which Lachgar is being held. According to her lawyers and family, she has been kept in isolation without a mattress and denied urgent medical treatment.
Ibtissame Betty Lachgar is a psychologist and long-time human rights activist known for her advocacy for women’s rights, LGBT rights, bodily autonomy, and freedom of conscience in Morocco. In August 2025, she was sentenced to 30 months in prison for posting a photograph of herself wearing a T-shirt that read “Allah is a lesbian.” The T-shirt was originally created in solidarity with two Iranian lesbians who were sentenced to death, and the photograph was taken outside of Morocco.
Since her imprisonment, Betty has been denied essential medical care. She is a bone cancer survivor with a prosthetic humerus that urgently requires replacement. She is currently enduring extreme pain and faces a serious risk of infection, amputation, or death if treatment continues to be withheld.
The Global Mattress Action calls on the Moroccan authorities to immediately free Ibtissame Betty Lachgar, provide her with the medical care she urgently needs, and end the criminalization of peaceful expression.
“This is a coordinated global response to a clear violation of human rights,” said Maryam Namazie, of the International Free Betty Coalition. “Betty has devoted her life to defending the dignity and freedoms of others. Today, she is being punished for a peaceful act of expression. Governments, institutions, and civil society must speak out. There is a real risk to her life.”
The action also coincides with the final day of the international 16 Days of Action Against Violence Against Women campaign. Organizers stress that Betty’s imprisonment is part of a broader pattern of state violence against women, LGBT communities, and dissidents.
Media Contact:
Email: maryamnamazie@gmail.com
Phone: +44 7719 166731
https://freebetty.org/
NOTES:
December 10 Letter from Betty’s sister Siham Lachgar and Maryam Namazie to British Foreign Minister: Ibtissame Betty Lachgar: A precedent that the UK Government cannot ignore
December 10 Letter from Betty’s sister Siham Lachgar and Maryam Namazie to Moroccan Embassy in London: A Call to Morocco: End Betty’s Unjust Imprisonment