Imane Khelif files legal complaint over internet harassment
According to her lawyer, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has filed a formal complaint, claiming that she has been the subject of internet harassment. After becoming the first Algerian woman to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing on Saturday, she gets ready for a legal battle. Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting were in the center of the intense gender controversy at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
“Everything that is said about me on social media is wicked. “I want to change the minds of people all over the world,” Khelif stated on Saturday. Khelif’s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, told Reuters that the complaint was filed on Friday. The controversy began when her maiden fight against Italian boxer Angela Carini finished in 46 seconds, with the European claiming that she “never felt a punch like this.”
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Imane Khelif faced significant scrutiny on social media, with some questioning her femininity. However, she championed her case and defeated world champion Yang Liu of China in the 66kg division final.
Khelif won gold medal at Paris Olympics
“As for whether I qualify or not, whether I am a woman or not, I have made many statements in the media,” Khelif stated following her win. “I am totally qualified to participate in this competition. I am a woman like any other woman. I was born a woman, I grew up as a woman, and I competed as a woman, no doubt. [The detractors] are enemies of success, as I call them. And it also lends my accomplishment a unique flavor because of these attacks,” Khelif told the media following her victory.
The dispute arose after the International Boxing Association (IBA) disqualified Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting from the World Boxing Championship in 2023 owing to the existence of XY chromosomes. However, the IBA was stripped of its standing as the global regulating body of boxing, and the International Olympic Association took over, determining that the two boxers were allowed to compete.
