Moroccan youth and feminist activists are appealing for international solidarity with Fadila al-Makhloufi, a member of Al-Mussawah (Equality) feminist group and the Youth Challenge Movement after her arrest and detention on 22 October. Fadila was interrogated by the Royal Gendarmerie and investigated by the General Prosecutor in Tinghir, in the south east of Morocco in connection with a video she distributed calling for solidarity with 37 hunger-striking political prisoners from the popular movement in the Rif region. 

A massive wave of demonstrations in 2016 in the Rif region was crushed by brutal repression, and leading activists from the peaceful protest movement were handed jail sentences totalling 230 years in 2018. Since then, activists across Morocco have continued to campaign in solidarity with the Rif prisoners. 

An international campaign for Fadila has won the support of feminist, migrant and socialist organisations in France, Italy, Slovenia, Iraq, Egypt and Tunisia. 

What you can do: 

• Write to the Moroccan Embassy calling for the immediate release of Fadila al-Makhloufi and the dropping of all charges against her. In the UK write to ambalondres@maec.gov.ma