As if this whole issue around the recently concluded Summer Olympics in Paris wasn't ridiculous enough already, we see now that Algerian boxer Imane Khelif has filed a lawsuit in France. The suit is charging unnamed individuals with harassment over their criticism of the possibly XY-chromosome-equipped Khelif beating the daylights out of women in the Olympics boxing events.
Olympic boxing champion Imane Khelif has filed a legal complaint in France for online harassment after a rain of criticism and false claims about her sex during the Paris Olympics, her lawyer said Sunday.
Khelif, who will be 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.
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.
So, a fishing expedition.
On X, activist Robby Starbuck claimed that the lawsuit names, among others, Elon Musk and J.K. Rowling. It's fairly certain that, even if this is true, neither Musk nor Rowling are terribly worried over this.
Imane Khelif is suing @elonmusk, @jkrowling, other prominent figures and even anonymous accounts for cyberbullying in France.
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) August 13, 2024
This is ludicrous. A world authority in boxing (the IBA) refused to let Imane fight after a test showed that he had XY chromosomes.
People are allowed… pic.twitter.com/Vm3vKN0Ddq
I'll hazard a guess here that Imane Khelif is seeking to stretch that 15 minutes of fame to 20 minutes — maybe 30.
See Related: OPINION: It Doesn't Matter If Olympic Boxer Is Intersex—Women Should Still Be Protected, Not the Minority
We Now Have Answers About Testing Done on Olympic Boxers Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting
Look, this particular piece of the Imane Khelif issue isn't whether Khelif is a man or a woman, or whether Khelif has XX or XY chromosomes. That is an issue, but it's not the issue in this lawsuit. This is a free speech issue. The choice of France for this lawsuit is telling; for one thing, yes, Algeria, where Khelif is from, was once a French colony. But Europe, in general, doesn't have the free speech protections that more civilized countries have; in the UK, for instance, one can be jailed for politically incorrect or even insensitive social media posts.
As of this writing, neither Elon Musk nor J.K. Rowling have replied to this case.
The intrusive actions by increasingly totalitarian governments aside, people have to right to say what's on their minds. This is a fundamental human right, even if governments illegitimately deny the peasantry that right. There is no guarantee that one will never be upset or insulted by random posters on X or Facebook. Imane Khelif has been revealed to be nothing more than an attention-seeker at this point, and if they are or do go after Elon Musk, well, we can imagine Musk's response will be amusing and final.
As I'm fond of saying, I live in a free-speech zone. It's called the United States of America.
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