Denver – A Moroccan judge has sentenced a 23-year-old Moroccan-Italian woman who “insulted Islam” to three and a half years in prison and the payment of a fine of nearly $6,000, according to an official announcement by the Ministry of Justice.
The unnamed woman was arrested at Casablanca airport immediately after returning from Marseille, France, where she was studying law. The arrest was linked to a 2019 Facebook post in which the woman rewrote quranic verses in a parodic praise of the consumption of alcohol.
According to statements from the woman’s father, who requested both he and his daughter remain anonymous, his daughter “did not know” she was the target of an arrest warrant for her Facebook posts. The man also defended his daughter by expressing that she “is not fluent in Arabic” and was unaware of the nature of the content she shared on social media.
After paying his daughter a visit in prison, the woman’s father described her as having been “broken” by her lengthy and harsh sentence. He also stated that the court’s sentence “ruined” his daughter’s future.
Sources familiar with the case reported that the investigation originated from a religious association in Marrakech, which formally submitted a complaint to Moroccan legal authorities prior to the girl’s return to Morocco.
Under Moroccan Penal Code 267(5), anyone “who offends the Islamic religion or the monarchy, or incites territorial integrity” is liable to face stiff fines and prison time. Moroccan law enforcement have arrested several people over the past year for perceived slights against Islam, mainly via social media posts.
Many on social media were quick to comment on the situation, with some claiming the woman had the “right to exercise intellectual criticisms” of the Quran’s verses. Others were critical of what they described as the woman’s unacceptable attitude, condemning her for insulting the religious beliefs of a large number of people around the world via her facebook posts.
