Lalla Batoul Benaîssa () is believed to be the first woman in modern Morocco to have been imprisoned for political reasons. In 1910, she was jailed and tortured by Sultan Abdelhafid as the wife of El-Bacha Benaïssa, the Governor of Fez and one of the principal aides of his brother Abdelaziz, whom he had overthrown in 1908. In 1910, writing for '' The Times'', Walter Harris revealed that Batoul had been imprisoned in a palace cell in

Fez Fez most often refers to: * Fez (hat), a type of felt hat commonly worn in the Ottoman Empire * Fez, Morocco (or Fes), the second largest city of Morocco Fez or FEZ may also refer to: Media * ''Fez'' (Frank Stella), a 1964 painting by the moder ...

. Harris describes the events as follows:

he sultan He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
gave orders that the fortune f the governor of Fezwas to be found; and thus fresh privations and more floggings ensued, but all to no avail. Then the women were arrested, amongst them the aristocratic wife of the Governor of Fez, a lady of good family and high position. It was thought that she would know, and disclose the hidden treasure. She was tortured, but disclosed nothing.

The torturing consisted of her being chained to irons and hung naked on a wall in the crucifixion position. Under the personal supervision of Abdelhafid, she underwent flogging sessions while her breasts were seized in a vice. The reason for her capture and torture was Abdelhafid's intent to arrest all aides who had served his brother Abdelaziz. They included Batoul's husband, El-Bacha Benaïssa, one of his closest aides, together with over 20 members of his family. In 2013, the Moroccan historian

Maati Monjib Maati Monjib ( ar, المعطي منجب, born 6 March 1962) is a Moroccan university professor, journalist, historian, writer and political activist. Monjib holds two PhDs, one from France in North African politics and another from Senegal on Afr ...

discovered documents in the colonial archives in

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

that revealed that Lalla Batoul not only was an intelligent and cultured aristocrat but also had a well-developed set of connections with Europeans living in Morocco. Her torture in the presence of the sultan demonstrates how the monarchy was ready to repress women who exceeded their assigned roles.

References

Moroccan women in politics 19th-century Moroccan women Moroccan prisoners and detainees Moroccan torture victims 19th-century births 20th-century deaths Moroccan feminists 20th-century Moroccan women {{Morocco-bio-stub