New Delhi: Algerian boxer Imane Khelif who clinched the gold medal in women’s boxing at the 2024 Paris Olympics has named British author J.K. Rowling and American billionaire Elon Musk in her lawsuit over online harassment related to her gender.
A controversy erupted around Khelif’s gender after Italian boxer Angela Carini, abandoned the quarter-final match less than a minute into its start and declared she “never felt a punch like this.”
This was followed by a wave of disinformation and hate speech surrounding the athlete’s gender.
On social media, influential posters ranging from politicians like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and former US President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, to athletes like the American swimmer Riley Gaines and well-known public figures like Rowling and Musk had shared accusations that Khelif was competing in a women’s category despite being a man, and that the quarter-final bout had been an unfair matchup.
Khelif’s Olympic contingent were then forced to offer clarifications that the 25-year-old was born a woman, had been brought up as such and continued to identify as a woman. The Algerian Olympics and Sports committee and the International Olympic Committee too had issued statements in her support.
Khelif’s Paris-based attorney Nabil Boudi said that both Rowling and Musk were mentioned in the body of the complaint filed with the anti-online hatred center of the Paris public prosecutor’s office.
According to reports the lawsuit has been filed against ‘X’ or unnamed persons, which, under French law, would “ensure that the prosecution has all the latitude to be able to investigate against all people,” including those who may have written hateful messages under pseudonyms, said Boudi.
“JK Rowling and Elon Musk are named in the lawsuit, among others. Trump tweeted, so whether or not he is named in our lawsuit, he will inevitably be looked into as part of the prosecution,” Boudi was quoted by NDTV as saying.
“Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head, and whose life’s ambition he’s just shattered. #Paris2024,” Rowling had posted on X.
The Algerian athlete broke her silence on the matter only after winning her gold medal bout, saying that “These people [who claim I am not a woman], they are the enemies of success, it’s what I call them, it gives my success a special taste because of these attacks…I hope that people will commit to the Olympic charter and its values. We’re here to perform to our audience and families. I hope we will not see similar attacks in these Olympics.”
In an interview with SNTV, a media outlet affiliated with the Associated Press, Khelif said bullying “can destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.” She also thanked the Olympic Committee for doing her “justice.”
