I have had truly unpleasant interactions with people I’ve known for years – including with those in academia – during these Olympics. Their loathsome disdain for transgenderism made them attack a non-transgendered woman, a boxer from Algeria, in giddy displays of ignorance and hatred. I will be interested in how this complaint against X (formerly Twitter) develops. From Aljazeera:
Imane Khelif … Algeria’s flag bearer in the closing ceremony, won gold Friday in the women’s welterweight division, becoming a new hero in her native Algeria and bringing global attention to women’s boxing. …
Khalif was unwittingly thrust into a worldwide clash over gender identity and regulation in sports after her first fight, when Italian opponent Angela Carini pulled out just seconds into the match, citing pain from opening punches. False claims that Khelif was transgender or a man erupted online, and the International Olympic Committee defended her and denounced those peddling misinformation. Khelif said that the spread of misconceptions about her “harms human dignity.” …
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The complaint was filed Friday with a special unit in the Paris prosecutor’s office for combating online hate speech, alleging “aggravated cyber-harassment” targeting Khelif, lawyer Nabil Boudi said. In a statement, he described it as a “misogynist, racist and sexist campaign” against the boxer.
It is now up to prosecutors to decide whether to open an investigation. As is common in French law, the complaint doesn’t name an alleged perpetrator but leaves it to investigators to determine who could be at fault.
Additional context here. And more of Khelif’s own, honestly powerful words here.
One cannot even point to misinformation as the cause for the attacks I witnessed first-hand. People were chomping at the bit. I was dismayed.
