Imane Khelif is an Algerian cisgender female boxer who has recently been the subject of many public debates following her win against the Italian female boxer Angela Carini in the Paris Olympics 2024. The controversy in question arose because Carini surrendered after just 46 seconds in the match against Imane Khelif, after which Khelif became the winner automatically.
A key moment from this match which became viral on social media was the crying shot of Angela Carini after her loss, with her statement which has been plastered all over the internet, “I have never been hit so hard in my life.” This entire spectacle has been paired with the information that Imane Khelif has previously failed the questionable ‘gender eligibility,’ test performed by the International Boxing Association (IBA), thereby leading to the preposterous conclusions that she is a “man” or “transgender.”
When we take a closer look at this entire scenario, we may come to a glaring realisation that this is not the first time that women players, and especially women players of colour, had to battle these allegations questioning their gender identity after excelling at their respective fields. Indeed, male players have never had these same questions raised on their identities. Simultaneously, while Imane was getting attacked in the Paris Olympics 2024, a similar situation was happening in the case of Taiwanese female boxer Lin Yu Ting, who is also being called a “man” in the public discourse.
As this problem keeps making its appearance time and again, we are face-to-face with some important questions about the issues faced by women in sports. Firstly, it exposes the blatant misogyny of the mainstream discourse that only celebrates a certain kind and version of women in sports in terms of their physical appearance and strengths. Then, it also makes us question the legitimacy of these invasive medical tests in sports that claim to reaffirm the gender identity of female players of colour and determine which particular ‘kind,’ of a woman gets to play and succeed.
The ‘Transvestigation’ of Imane Khelif
“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,” writes JK Rowling on X, who is a white self-proclaimed feminist and infamous for her transphobic tweets and hateful public statements.
“I WILL KEEP MEN OUT OF WOMEN’S SPORTS,” writes Donald Trump, who has often been under fire for his blatant and unapologetic misogyny, on top of his campaigns of transphobia. Certainly, this is enough testament to how much he cares about women’s representation and rights.
Elon Musk, who has been pointed out by queer-rights organisations for making X the most unsafe platform for LGBTQ+ folks and who has also been involved in multiple public altercations with his transgender daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson, also showed support for Riley Gaines’ tweet “Men don’t belong in women’s sports.”
These tweets by some very famous and influential white personalities have been instrumental in shaping the public discourse on Imane Khelif and driving the misinformed conversations and hate-train on her gender identity. By plastering the image of a crying Carini, what these tweets are doing in retrospect is not standing up against any real gender-based discrimination towards women, or actually ‘protecting,’ the women against some misguided idea of ‘harm,’ but it is rather reestablishing the idea of white femininity as the standard for women, reaffirming the harmful beliefs that have defeminised and oppressed women of colour historically and advocating for the patriarchal white-supremacist order.
It is interesting to note that Imane Khalif has lost 9 times in her career. One of the opponents who beat her, Irish boxer Amy Broadhurst has also come in support stating that, “The fact that she has been beaten by 9 females before says it all.” Rather than admitting Carini’s defeat is due to her relative underperformance, her tears are being used as a spectacle to paint her as a ‘weaker,’ white woman, and Khelif has been painted as ‘too violent and too strong,’ ironically for a boxing tournament on a world stage.
The many Imane Khelifs in history: women of colour vs the gender eligibility test
“I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes, because this has effects, massive effects. It 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,” Imane Khelif said in an interview.
The Swaddle traced the roots of the gender eligibility test back to the 1936 Berlin Olympics under Nazi rule, which used invasive procedures like visual inspections and physical examinations to issue a ‘certificate of femininity,’ to the female players, and later this was modified to include the testosterone and chromosome testing. The standards of issuing this ‘certificate of femininity,’ and its successors are self-explanatory: the white supremacist ideals of womanhood.
Serena Williams, Christina Mboma, Ewa Klobukowska, María José Martínez-Patiño, Indian sprinter Santhi Soundararajan, Caster Semenya, Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, among many others, are all sportswomen of colour who have been victimised by these inherently racist gender eligibility tests for not being able to fit in these Eurocentric standards- whether it is beauty standards or medical standards, and for naturally having high levels of testosterone and naturally occurring chromosome variations.
Many of these women in question have lost their careers while trying to prove their womanhood to the ruthless public discourse, and Santhi Soundararajan even attempted suicide. There are some examples of white sportswomen who defy these conventional standards too including rugby player Ilona Maher and swimmer Kate Ledecky who are both American players whose gender identity has been questioned owing to their physical appearance. Indeed, these restrictive and discriminatory gender eligibility tests, or public questioning of gender identity, are never experienced by the male counterparts of these women in sports.
Imane Khelif is unfortunately only a recent addition to this list. Imane is now undergoing a fiercer public battle to prove her womanhood to the world. Pictures of her childhood as a little girl are surfacing on social media, as ‘proofs.’ Her father Omar Khelif had to go public to issue a statement reaffirming her identity as a cisgender woman and assert that they have all the evidence to prove her identity, “My daughter is a woman, we have all the evidence, including her birth certificate. My daughter was just stronger than the Italian boxer. She works very hard.”
Adding fuel to the fire: IBA is a banned organisation
Other than the famous personalities who are driving the mainstream discourse, another major party in fuelling the rhetoric has been the International Boxing Association (IBA), which has been calling for her disqualification. The IBA has had a history of troubled governance and issues with financial and ethical transparency. The IBA is the body whose questionable ‘gender eligibility,’ tests were failed by both Imane Khelif and Lin Yu Ting. However, the IBA has refused to disclose the results and maintain transparency regarding the gender eligibility tests that led to their disqualification from the 2023 Women’s World Championships. The IBA was suspended by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2019 and also had its recognition revoked in 2023 for the same issues regarding transparency in all processes. Therefore, it is not a recognised body that can pass its judgement on Imane Khelif, and they certainly cannot be the drivers of the conversations surrounding her.
The IOC has been very vocal in showing support for both Imane Khelif and Lin Yu Ting while calling out the misinformation circulating in public discourses. The Paris 2024 Olympics is also the first to achieve a monumental ‘Gender Parity.’
IOC spokesperson Mark Adams stated, “What I would say about testosterone is that it is not a perfect test. Many women can have testosterone levels considered to be in the ‘male range’ and still be women and compete as women. So this idea of testing testosterone or something else as a definitive solution is not the case.”
Mark Adams has also publicly addressed that Imane Khelif is not a transgender sportsperson, “I want to make that absolutely clear to everyone. There has been some misreporting on that. It’s very important to say that this is not a transgender issue.”
Meanwhile, in another problematic move, the IBA has planned to award $50k to Angela Carini despite her loss to Khelif, which is the same amount that’s given to an Olympian champion.
The misguided hate bandwagon
While an Algerian cis-gender female player who has won the game fair and square is being attacked for all the wrong reasons, a convicted child rapist Steven van de Velde is yet to receive even half of the backlash as Imane Khelif. Khelif’s case only brings out the larger concerns regarding gender and racism that persist on a global scale. The harmful ideas behind gender and binaries not only disproportionately affect transgender people and their representation, but cis-gender women who do not conform to the rigid codes also get caught up in the fray.
