By RFPosted on 19-10-2019Modified on 19-10-2019 at 08:32

After 47 days in prison, journalist Hajar Raissouni was released last Wednesday after a royal pardon. The RFI correspondent met her in her family in Casablanca.

Exhausted, Hajar Raissouni enters the flat Casablanca of his uncle Souleymane and takes his aunt in his arms. It is almost midnight. She returns from Rabat where she spent the day at the Sudanese embassy to settle papers with her fiance. Finally, they will be able to get married.

Accused of illegal abortion and extramarital sex, she and her fiance had been sentenced to one year in prison ; the gynecologist of the journalist to two years in prison.

► Read also: In the news: Hajar Raïssouni pardoned

17 pounds lost in 47 days

She settles on the terrace to be quiet and discuss. In the living room, her fiancé, uncles and friends are talking fiercely. " I feel free, " are the first words of Hajar Raissouni, who describes his release as " unexpected ".

The hardest part of her 47 days spent in jail for her is " the void " and not writing every day, as she did as a reporter. There, she lost 17 kilos and ate only a few vegetables and eggs, for fear of getting sick.

Work on the issue of women's rights

Happy to have benefited from this royal grace, she hopes a continuation of the debate on individual freedoms launched by the civil society. After a month or two of rest, she already wants to go back to work and explore human rights issues, especially women's rights.

The 28-year-old journalist says she wants to defend the right to abortion, even if she says she did not have an abortion and that her trial remains " political ". But above all, she wants her innocence to be recognized on appeal.

    On the same subject

    Morocco: King Gracie Hajar Raissouni Imprisoned for Illegal Abortion

    Women filmmakers tackle the taboos of their societies in the Maghreb

    A manifesto to denounce obsolete laws in Morocco

    Morocco: strong reactions after the conviction of journalist Hajar Raissouni

    H.Raissouni's conviction in Morocco for abortion: "Justice and the police are exploited

    comments