Imane Khelif Fights The World's Greatest Boxers—and Bigots

The 2024 Paris Olympics have set a new standard of bigotry and misogyny—an we need to talk about it

NOTE: UPDATE ON 8/9

Imane Khelif has won the Gold Medal at the Paris Olympics, defeating China’s Yang Liu in the 66-KG division. This is her first Gold medal, and the first and only medal for Algeria so far in the 2024 Olympics. Congrats to her, her family, her team, and all of Algeria!

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Perhaps the biggest irony of Algerian Olympian Imane Khelif’s Olympic boxing run is that while today she suffers misogyny for being not ‘female enough,’ she grew up facing opposition that as a girl, boxing was ‘too manly.’

The 2024 Paris Olympic Games were supposed to be the “Gender Equal Olympics.” To advance the Olympic mission “to promote safe sport and the protection of athletes from all forms of harassment and abuse.” Instead, we see repeated examples of horrid Islamophobia and misogyny. French Muslim women are banned from wearing Hijab. Palestinian women suffer genocide as their oppressors compete despite IOC rules banning nations from competing while violating international law. And in the latest debacle, an Algerian Muslim woman, Imane Khelif, is demonized as not a real woman.

What has led us to this shameful situation, and how do we ensure justice for female athletes and Muslim athletes going forward? Let’s Address This.

Italy's Angela Carini (left) ended her match with Algeria's Imane Khelif (right) on Thursday after 46 seconds. Photo Credit: AP

The latest bout of Islamophobia and misogyny comes from global ire directed at Imane Khelif, the sensational Algerian boxer competing in her second Olympic games. Khelif faced Italian boxer Angela Carini in the round of 16. After getting punched in the face for a second time, Carini forfeited the bout, granting Khelif the victory. In a tearful display Carini quit, igniting global compassion for her, and demonization for Khelif.

VP Presidential candidate JD Vance tweeted:

This is where Kamala Harris's ideas about gender lead: to a grown man pummeling a woman in a boxing match. This is disgusting, and all of our leaders should condemn it.

Author JK Rowling added:

The idea that those objecting to a male punching a female in the name of sport are objecting because they believe Khelif to be ‘trans’ is a joke. We object because we saw a male punching a female.

Swimmer Riley Gaines tweeted a picture of Carini with the caption:

Men don't belong in women's sports #IStandWithAngelaCarini Let's get it trending.

To which Twitter owner Elon Musk quote tweeted:

Absolutely.

There’s only one problem with all of the above—Imane Khelif is not a man, she is a woman. Khelif was born a woman, is a woman, and has always identified as a woman. Yet the weaponization of white women tears from Italian boxer Angela Carini, combined with anti-LGBTQ misinformation and violence, changed all that in a mere 46 seconds. And in addition to the above right wing provocateurs, legacy media added to the misinformation campaign, labeling Khelif a “transgender boxer.” The Boston Globe issued this headline well after it was explicitly clear that Khelif is not transgender and has never been transgender. This is yet another example of legacy media’s abject failure to protect the marginalized and hold the powerful accountable.

In fact, Angela Carini tears were so powerful that the International Boxing Association announced that they will award her $50K in prize money, which is the equivalent of what an Olympic gold medalist receives, for dropping out of her bout against Imane Khelif. "I couldn't look at her tears," IBA President Umar Kremlev said in a press release. For as much as conservatives despise participation trophies, they sure are proud of Carini’s.

Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, as an Olympian and as a little girl.

If there is one thing the Olympics have taught us, is there’s no one ‘right’ body size or shape for any athlete. The viral clip by star Rugby player Ilona Maher beautifully demonstrates that. Yet, the global piling on of an Algerian Muslim woman because she doesn’t ‘look’ female enough is indicative of what I’ve long said—Islamophobia is one of the last acceptable forms of bigotry in the world. Adding to the absurdity of this misinformation is that Khelif competed in the 2021 Olympics without issue. Fellow female boxers like world champion Amy Broadhurst tweeted:

Have a lot of people texting me over Imane Khelif. Personally I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat’. I thinks it’s the way she was born & that’s out of her control. The fact that she has been beating by 9 females before says it all.

One of those 9 females, by the way, is Amy Broadhurst. Thus, my question is simple—in the face of all this misogyny and Islamophobia, where is the IOC? The Olympic mission also calls “to act against any form of discrimination affecting the Olympic Movement.” Unfortunately, for Muslim women in the 2024 Olympics, none of these rules seem to apply. Throughout these Olympics we’ve seen grotesque discrimination against women and Muslim athletes, and yet the IOC either stands by, or further enables it.

For the Olympics to ever truly live up to their proposed mission, the world’s 1.6B Muslims, and the world’s 4B women, must receive the same respect and dignity as all people. Imane Khelif, French Muslim women, and Palestinian women are already combatting the world’s greatest athletes in their quests for gold—the least the IOC can do is protect them from the world’s greatest bigots.

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