[9] Her father, Hammadi Bouayach, was a lawyer, a political activist, thinker and a law professor at the University of Rabat, of which he became dean.

[11] Many years later, she told a journalist in an interview that her advocacy for political prisoners began when her ex-husband, a Marxist–Leninist activist who she had married at a very young age, was arrested in 1976.

[12] She was a founding member in 1998 of the Moroccan Organisation for Human Rights (OMDH),[13] which in 1993 criticized the execution of a high-ranking security official.

[17] For World Women's Day 2019, she launched a national campaign for the abolition of underage marriage in Morocco.

The Hirak Rif (popular movement) began in 2016 after Mohcine Fikri, a local fishmonger, was crushed to death in a garbage truck while attempting to retrieve his confiscated goods.

[25][2] Later on, in a 400-page report created by CNDH and presented by Bouayach, the conclusions concurred with the judiciary charges against the prominent leader of the protests, Nasser Zefzafi, who was sentenced to 20 years of prison.

Zefzafi was arrested after insulting a local imam at a sermon and condemned by the judiciary for inciting protests that had turned to "severe violence", including the arson of a residence sheltering Al Hoceima police.