The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) joins the many people in our community who are mourning the untimely death of Moroccan woman human rights defender Bouchra Chetouani in Agadir today, on 11 January 2024. A member of our network, Chetouani participated in GCHR activities and brought joy to all who knew her.

She participated in April 2023 in the United Nations Consultation that GCHR organised between 27 human rights defenders and several UN experts including UN Special Rapporteur of the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor (pictured below with Chetouani). At the event, she celebrated her birthday (as pictured above.)

She also participated actively in the MENA Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) Forum, organised by GCHR with the Innovation for Change (I4C) Network – Middle East and North Africa (MENA), in September 2022.

She gained many friends at the event, who expressed their deep sadness at her passing on social media, calling her a “friendly, educated, kind, affectionate friend” who “was strong, and her smile was permanent.”

Chetouani, a presenter at Radio Joussour, was also educational coordinator at Association ANIR d’Aide aux Enfants en Situation Difficile (Aid to Children in Difficult Situations) and National Coordinator and founding member of Groupe des Jeunes Femmes pour la Démocratie (Group of Young Women for Democracy).

On 10 January 2024, Chetouani posted on her Facebook page that she was having surgery the next day for a brain tumour. Tragically, she did not survive the surgery after fighting cancer for three years. She leaves behind her husband and two young children.

In her last post, she wrote, “An evening of strength and endurance… To all my loved ones, my friends, my small and big family, to my children, Naji, Ahad, and the soul of my heart, my husband, my brother, and my best friend Yassin…. I tried to prevent myself from writing anything that moves in my mind and my conscience so that it would not be difficult for me and for all my dear ones, but I couldn’t, because I used to share everything here on this wall for more than thirteen years… And now the most difficult station in my life has given me nothing but to descend on it… You never gave me a free gift, every time I was given a chance for joy, love or victory, but you forced me into a fierce boxing ring. Even with the disease, three years ago, I am resisting the cursed disease that chose the most original part of my body and forced it to be inhabited…”