JK Rowling and Elon Musk have both been named in an online bullying lawsuit filed by Olympic champion boxer Imane Khelif, who was embroiled in a gender eligibility row over her participation in the Paris Olympics.
Khelif, who won gold for Algeria in the women’s 66kg title, sparked heated debate when she was allowed to compete at the Paris Games despite failing a sex test last year.
The assumption was that Imane Khelif is a transgender woman who was unfairly competing against biological women at the Olympics. By all accounts though, it appears Imane Khalif was born a biological woman, but somehow happens to have ridiculous testosterone levels and/or male chromosome composition.
This week, Khelif’s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, revealed Rowling and Musk have both been named in a criminal complaint the boxer has filed with French authorities, after they both referred to Khelif as a man in their Tweets. Others who were named include Donald Trump, Logan Paul and Jake Paul, who all made comments about Khelif’s eligibility to compete against female boxers.
The lawsuit states that Khelif suffered “aggravated cyber harassment” and was the victim of “misogynistic, racist and sexist” cyberbullying, which her lawyer described as a “digital lynching”.
Khelif has repeatedly insisted she is a woman (in fact, being transgender is illegal in her native Algeria) and said her Olympic gold medal had a “special taste” after all the abuse she endured online.
JK Rowling posted an image of Khelif saying: “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.”
In another tweet, Rowling clarified: “I don’t claim Khelif is trans. My objection, and that of many others, is to male violence against women becoming an Olympic sport.”
Elon Musk shared a post from the former swimmer and women’s sport activist Riley Gaines, proclaiming “men don’t belong in women’s sports”. The X owner said he “absolutely” agreed.
Trump also shared an image of Khelif which he captioned: “I will keep men out of women’s sports”.
Logan Paul also Tweeted about Khelif, calling her a man and stating her involvement in women’s boxing was ‘evil’, although to be fair to the guy, he later apologised:
Khelif was due to compete in last year’s World Championships final only to be disqualified from the competition when the International Boxing Association (IBA) announced she had failed a sex test. If the IBA tests are taken at face value, XY chromosomes are present in Khelif’s DNA.
Individuals born with XY chromosomes are biologically male. However, there are disorders of sexual development which can influence your chromosomes, hormones and reproductive organs, and that’s what Khelif and her supporters insist is the case with her.
The International Olympic Committee has acknowledged it was warned in writing more than a year ago that Khelif had the DNA of a “male”, but has disputed the validity of the IBA’s tests. It’s also worth noting that the IBA has since been stripped of its rights to govern global boxing.
So, it will be interesting to see where this lawsuit goes and whether Elon Musk, JK Rowling and co are made to cough up obscene amounts of money for ‘cyberbullying’ Imane Khelif and ‘spreading misinformation’ about her.
By starting this lawsuit I’m pretty sure the other side can do a deep dive on Khelif’s background and medical history and even ask for more tests to be done, and so who knows what twists and turns await in this saga. Surely Khelif wouldn’t be taking the issue this far if she was actually hiding something, right?
