Imane Khelif spoke about the fear she felt during the Olympic controversy. She is now suing Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling.
Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer who recently won a gold medal in the women’s featherweight division at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
She has become the center of a significant controversy.
This situation has escalated to the point where she is suing high-profile figures such as Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling.
In a recent interview, Khelif expressed her feelings about the ordeal, admitting that the controversy surrounding her has been “very scary.”
Imane Khelif, the Olympic gold medalist in boxing, has spoken out about the controversy surrounding her gender identity during the 2023 Olympics.
The Algerian boxer, who was born a woman and is listed as such on her passport, faced scrutiny and backlash.
This occurred after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) deemed her eligible to compete.
Imane Khelif admits Olympics gender controversy was ‘very scary’ after suing Elon Musk and JK Rowling
Recently, in an interview with the Algerian-based news channel EI Birad, Khelif expressed the huge toll the controversy took on her.
She stated that the gender controversy was very scary.
High-profile figures, including former US President Donald Trump, CEO Elon Musk, and J.K. Rowling publicly mocked her identity and gender.
Khelif said, “I am not lying to you, it affected me. It affected me a lot, hurt me a lot.
“I can’t describe to you the amount of fear I had.”
The boxer went on to say that she was “hurt a lot” by the chatter surrounding her gender at the Olympics.
However, she was grateful for the outpouring of support from the people of Algeria and the Arab world, who recognized her “femininity, her courage, her will.”
Khelif, who was born a woman and deemed eligible to compete by the IOC, expressed her frustration with the intrusion of politics into sports.
She stated, “These politicians who are oppressing me, they don’t have the right to say that I’m transgender.”
The boxer firmly believes that “sports and politics are two separate things.”
Olympic championship Imane Khelif sues Elon Musk and JK Rowling
Khelif’s comments come in the wake of her decision to file a lawsuit against some individuals accused of aggravated cyber harassment.
While no specific defendants have been named, the lawsuit has mentioned the involvement of J.K. Rowling and Elon Musk.
Rowling, the famous author of the Harry Potter series took to Twitter during the Olympics and called Khelif a man.
Additionally, Rowling accused the Olympic champion of enjoying the distress of her opponent, Angela Carini.
She claimed that Khelif shattered Carini’s sporting ambitions.
Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Twitter, shared a post from American swimmer Riley Gaines that misgendered Khelif and stated that she does not “belong in women’s sports.”
Rowling and Musk face prison sentences and hefty fines if they lose Khelif cyberbullying case.
According to reports, if Rowling and Musk lose the case against Khelif, they could potentially face prison sentences and huge fines.
In France, cyberbullying offenses can carry prison sentences of up to five years and fines of up to $325,000.
Khelif’s lawyer, Nabil Boudi, confirmed that they named both Musk and Rowling in the complaint.
The team filed the complaint with the anti-online hatred center of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s office.