New Delhi: Singer Chinmayi Sripaada, known for her vocal views on social media and as a woman’s rights activist, has spoken in favour of Imane Khelif. The Algerian boxer is being trolled for participating in and dismantling her opponent in a woman’s boxing match at Paris Olympics despite failing failing unspecified and untransparent eligibility tests for women’s competition from the now-banned International Boxing Association last year.
Chinmayi shared a childhood picture of Imane and wrote on X, “Imane Khelif is BORN WOMAN. She is NOT a man. *The right to change their gender is illegal and banned in Algeria, the country she represents.* Indians have harassed and harangued Shanthi Soundarrajan, a brilliant sportswoman, just because she didn’t look the way they expect a woman to look. I hope Imane is OK. She is going through global bullying and it looks horrific. This is Imane Khelif as a child.”
JK Rowling, bestselling British author who wrote the Harry Potter books, was one of those who criticised the participation of Imane in a woman’s boxing match. She shared a picture of Imane with her opponent Angela Carini after the match and wrote on X, “Could any picture sum up our new men’s rights movement better? The smirk of a male who’s 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.”
Chinmayi also responded to JK Rowling by resharing Imane’s childhood picture. She wrote in the caption, “How heroes fall. Someone show J K Rowling this photo. I am pretty sure Rowling will have no remorse for what she has globally unleashed on Imane because she belongs to a religion and race the standard white person doesn’t like.”
The International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said Friday that Imane Khelif “was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport.” He warned “not turn it into some kind of witch hunt.”
