Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won a gold medal in the women’s welterweight category and was her country’s flag bearer at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.
She has become a hero in Algeria and a global figure in women’s boxing, but she is best known for the intense criticism she received about her gender and gendersexuality during the Paris Olympics following a barrage of online criticism and false allegations.
Now, according to her lawyer, the Olympic boxing champion has filed a lawsuit in France for online harassment.
In a statement posted on Instagram on Saturday, Khelif’s lawyer Nabil Boudi claimed he had been the victim of “severe cyber harassment,” describing it as a “misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign” against the boxer.
The complaint was filed on Friday with a special unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office to combat hate speech on the Internet, the Associated Press reported. It is now up to the prosecutors to decide whether to open an investigation. As is customary in French law, the complaint does not name a suspected perpetrator, but leaves it up to the investigators to determine who might be to blame.
The bullying Khelif endured “violates human dignity,” she previously told SNTV, a sports video partner of The Associated Press.
“It can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And that’s why I ask you to refrain from bullying.”
Algerian boxer Imane Khelif won Olympic gold in boxing in the women’s 66 kg class.
Global collision
Khelif was drawn into a global conflict over gender identity and regulation in sport after her first fight at the Games, when her Italian opponent Angela Carini retired after just 46 seconds due to a punch to the face.
False claims that Khelif was transgender or a “biological male” circulated online, amplified by celebrities such as Elon Musk, author JK Rowling, brothers Logan Paul and Jake Paul – former YouTube stars who now compete in wrestling and boxing respectively – and Caitlyn Jenner, a former Olympic gold medalist and transgender woman.
“Could any image better sum up our new men’s rights movement? The grin of a man who knows he is protected by a misogynistic sports establishment that delights in the suffering of a woman he just punched in the head and whose life ambitions he just destroyed,” Rowling said on X, formerly known as Twitter. Harry Potter The author has become known for her controversial comments about the transgender community.
There is a long and difficult history of gender testing and allegations in women’s sport, says Rose Eveleth, host of the new podcast Tested, of CBC and NPR, told CBC Front burner last week.
However, she noted that boxing tends to increase emotional intensity and stakes.
Front burner30:40The turbulent history of Olympic boxing and gender testing
“Some of the worst actors, who don’t actually care that much about women’s sports or boxing, can make it seem like it’s about safety, like it’s about, you know, a man beating up a woman. Which, again, is not the case here,” Eveleth said.
“But it’s a really juicy headline and a really intense tweet that you can share and that gets people worked up. And I think it makes it easier to get people worked up.”
IOC defends Khelif
The International Olympic Committee defended Khelif, saying in a statement on August 1 that “everyone has the right to practice sport without discrimination.” It also condemned the “misleading information” circulating about Khelif.
“As in previous Olympic boxing competitions, the gender and age of athletes will be determined by their passport,” the statement said.
Before Khelif’s fight for the gold medal, IOC President Thomas Bach defended her right to compete in the women’s competition.
“It is not possible for someone to say ‘that is not a woman’ just because of the way she looks, or to become the victim of a defamation campaign by an untrustworthy organization with highly political interests,” Bach said on Friday, according to AP.
Khelif does not identify as transgender nor as someone who was born with a male body. According to a Fact check by GLAADThere is no indication that Khelif ever identified as transgender or intersex.
Joanna Harper, a former medical advisor to the IOC, comments on the discussion surrounding Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who had been approved to compete in the women’s welterweight category at the Olympic Games in Paris, but had previously violated the International Boxing Association’s (IBA) conditions of participation due to elevated testosterone levels.
Several of the false allegations on social media related to an incident in March 2023 when the International Boxing Association (IBA), the sport’s governing body, disqualified Khelif and fellow boxer Lin Yu-ting of Taiwan from the World Championships in New Delhi.
The IBA stated that they had failed the eligibility tests for the women’s competition, without providing details as to which tests they had passed.
“The current aggression against these two athletes is based solely on this arbitrary decision, taken without any due process – especially given the fact that these athletes have been competing at the highest level for many years,” the IOC said in a statement on August 1.
In June last year, the IOC voted to remove the IBA as the governing body of Olympic boxing due to financial reasons, as well as problems with sporting integrity and governance. This decision was later upheld in court and effectively meant the exclusion of the organization from the Olympic Games.
