Triumphantly, with her hand raised to a "Victory" sign, Hajar Raissouni leaves the court on Monday, which has just sentenced her to one year in jail. The 28-year-old journalist from Morocco was charged with abortions. The image of her undaunted gesture spreads rapidly in the social networks.
Hajar Raissouni & her fiancé Rifaat Al-Amin (handcuffed hands raised) leaving the tribunal after receiving a 1 year sentence for "illegal sex" and abortion. The blatant injustice did not break their spirit. #Morocco #FreeHajar (Photo AlYaoum24) https://t.co/U8zBJUJnUQ pic.twitter.com/7HIXTiL31Y
- Ahmed Benchemsi (@AhmedBenchemsi) September 30, 2019The case does not move Morocco for no reason, many contradictions and conflict lines of the North African country are brought together here: Raissouni is one of the few critical journalists in the country. She is the niece and cousin of three prominent dissidents - two Islamists and a leftist liberal. She was accused of ultra-conservative morality, a legacy of the French colonial era that Morocco's feminists have been mobilizing against, but not Morocco's conservatives. Nevertheless, Moroccans across the ideological spectrum agree on the punishment for Raissouni: a scandal.
"The verdict is harsh and unfair," says Souleymane Raissouni, her uncle, Islamist and editor-in-chief of Akhbar al Yaoum (News of the Day), which she works for.
Abdelillah Bayoussef / AP
Hajar Raissouni after her court on Monday: A victory sign goes viral
"The verdict proves the disregard of laws and freedoms in Morocco," says Youssef Raissouni, her left-liberal cousin and leader of one of the largest Moroccan human rights organizations (AMDH).
Uncle Ahmed Raissouni, an internationally renowned Islamic scholar who was once the chief ideologue of the moderate Islamist party in Morocco, has not yet expressed his opinion on criticism of the Moroccan king.
Despite the common indignation, the political camps disagree over why the hard judgment is wrong. The Conservatives see this as an abuse of the moral laws: critics and their families should be humiliated and silenced. The liberals on the other hand consider the traditional criminal law paragraphs fundamentally as a problem and want to abolish it.
Raissouni's fate may now turn into Morocco's "we are aborted" moment: on the internet, thousands of Moroccan women have already announced that they have broken the abortion ban.
They call themselves "Collective 490", according to the number of the paragraph in the Penal Code prohibiting abortions. Two prominent women had launched the appeal: the writer Leila Slimani, who is also a French citizen, and the director Sonia Terrab.
The verdict makes them sad, angry and worried, they write in a statement also posted on Facebook: Sad because of "all the women who are living through the desperate situation, must abort and who have this evening even more fear and pain than before" , angry at "hypocrisy", worried about the danger to life and limb for women who have to abort secretly.
The collective wants to continue to mobilize until the ban on abortions and extramarital relations for women is abolished. Whether they can count on the support of Hajar Raissounis, however, has yet to be seen. The young journalist has not yet distinguished herself as a women's rights activist.
Raissouni, who is close to the moderate Islamist, vehemently denied in court that she had ever aborted. That's why many Moroccan conservatives keep coming to her. The defense presented in court blood tests, which should prove that Raissouni was not even pregnant. Instead she had gone to the gynecologist because of a blood clot. The doctor was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for the alleged abortion, Raissouni's fiancé for allegedly one-year connivance, as well as his future husband. The defense now wants to appeal.
