« Free Betty » : un collectif féministe s’en prend à la statue de Mohamed VI au musée Grévin à Paris
The group mobilized on Saturday to raise awareness about the detention conditions of Ibtissame “Betty” Lachgar, who was sentenced in Morocco for “insulting the Islamic religion” and is in remission from cancer.
The action lasted a few minutes, around 11 a.m. A feminist activist had just enough time to put on a shirt bearing the inscription "FREE BETTY LACHGAR" on a wax statue of the King of Morocco Mohammed VI exhibited at the Grévin Museum, to raise awareness about the health of this activist imprisoned for blasphemy, it was learned on Saturday.
In a video, we see the statue of Mohammed VI wearing a jersey of the Moroccan national football team, which is playing in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday, of which it is also the host country, crossed out with the words "FREE BETTY LACHGAR".
The activist, wearing an identical t-shirt, wrote "FREE BETTY" on the wall with a white marker, before shouting slogans including "Free Betty Lachgar," and "She's facing death, she'll die in prison." The young woman was then escorted out of the museum by security. "They took my ID; I expect to be summoned by the police," she explained.
"We were able to intervene quickly," said Yves Delhommeau, director general of the Grévin museum, lamenting that "Grévin is increasingly being used for activism."
Ibtissame "Betty" Lachgar, 50, was sentenced in September 2025 to 30 months in prison and a fine of approximately 5,000 euros for "insulting the Islamic religion." Her sentence was upheld on appeal in October.
This Moroccan feminist activist was arrested after posting a photo of herself on social media wearing a t-shirt that read "Allah" followed by the phrase "is lesbian." The image was accompanied by a text describing Islam, "like any religious ideology," as "fascist, phallocentric, and misogynistic."
Ibtissame Lachgar is in remission from cancer. According to the collective, she is being deprived of the care she needs and could lose her arm. "The Africa Cup of Nations final, which will take place in Rabat, the city where Betty is imprisoned, offers Morocco international cultural exposure, and we wanted to show that it is unacceptable to promote a country that openly violates human rights," explained the activist from the SCUM collective.
This group, which describes itself as "radical", had carried out an action at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022, when an activist denouncing rapes committed by Russians in Ukraine burst onto the red carpet, topless and with blood-stained underwear, before being stopped by security services.
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