Olympic boxer Imane Khelif has filed a complaint with the French Public Prosecutor’s Office over cyberbullying. Based on a dubious investigation by a controversial international boxing federation, conservative voices on 'X' (formerly Twitter) claimed that Khelif is a transgender woman. These claims about the Olympic athlete, shared by Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling, are false. However, the rumour generated continuous attention toward Khelif. Despite the hate campaign, she eventually won a gold medal in Paris.
The names of Musk and Rowling appear in the complaint filed by Khelif through her lawyer. Officially, the complaint is focused on the cyberbullying that took place on Musk's platform, 'X', allowing the Public Prosecutor's Office to decide who will be prosecuted. One example cited in the complaint is an angry tweet from the Harry Potter author, in which she spoke about "a man hitting a woman in the name of sport."
Khelif’s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, also mentioned former U.S. President Donald Trump as one of the potential defendants in the case while speaking to Variety magazine. Khelif’s lawyer hopes that countries like the United States will cooperate with any extradition requests from the French Public Prosecutor’s Office. The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also involved herself in the controversy.
"White Tears"
Some critics attribute the questioning of Khelif’s womanhood to the fact that her Italian opponent, Angela Carini, burst into tears when she had to forfeit her match against Khelif after less than a minute. For example, author Ruby Hamar writes on Al Jazeera that Western conservatives, in particular, supported Carini because of her European, "white," tears. Hamar refers to a history in international sports competitions where Western athletes have doubted the womanhood of non-white athletes, driven by a colonial view of non-Western women.
As a result, Khelif's lawyer has also included the racist aspect of the criticism against the boxing champion in the complaint, referring to it as “public incitement to discrimination and public insult because of origin.”, according to Variety.
