Imane Khelif Names Musk and Rowling in Harassment Suit
Subjected to weeks of public ridicule and internet harassment instigated by transphobic celebrities, Imane Khelif’s lawyer has announced that they’ve filed suit in France against “unknown parties.”
by Alyssa Steinsiek
Correction: In its initial publication, this article suggested that Khelif and her counsel had filed suit against X, the social media company owned by Elon Musk. Instead, Khelif is litigating against “unknown parties,” represented by the letter X.
Now that she’s won gold at the Olympics in welterweight boxing, Algerian fighter Imane Khelif is turning her attention to a new battle: Taking on the many famous and rich loudmouths who thought it was a good idea to publicly defame her on social media for weeks.
That’s right, freshly minted Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif has filed suit against “unknown parties,” alleging “acts of aggravated cyber harassment,” according to her legal representative in Paris, Nabil Boudi. The suit mentions some high profile names, but was filed without targeting any one person so as to ensure that prosecution could pursue the many people who participated in Khelif’s internet harassment, including anonymous posters, according to Boudi.
Two of the most significant names mentioned in the suit are JK Rowling and Elon Musk. Last week we commented on Rowling’s participation in the witch hunt against Khelif, and how she repeatedly and incorrectly identified Khelif as transgender. Rowling’s most egregious post about Khelif on August 1st described her as “a male who’s [sic] 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.”
Rowling was remarking upon Khelif’s fight with Italian Angela Carini, who gave up after taking a blow to the head forty-six seconds into the fight. She refused to shake Khelif’s hand after the bout, and initially remarked she had “never been hit so hard in [her] life,” and that quitting the match was necessary to “preserve [her] life.” Less than a day later, Carini recanted and expressed a desire to apologize to Khelif, accepting the IOC’s ruling on her opponent’s eligibility to fight.
Elon Musk, meanwhile, shared and supported a message from failed collegiate swimmer turned professional transphobe Riley Gaines implying that Imane Khelif was a man. We’ve penned far too many articles about Gaines’ bad behavior at Assigned Media, and as far as Musk is concerned… well, maybe he should keep quiet after lying quite loudly about his trans daughter, who revealed that Musk was an absentee father who, when he was present, relentlessly bullied her for her femininity.
The controversy surrounding Khelif, as well as Taiwanese fighter Lin Yu-ting, is part of a larger movement against the participation of transgender athletes in sports. In particular, the topic of transgender Olympians has been generating headlines for years now, even though you could count the number of trans Olympians to ever compete on one hand, and only one of them was pursuing medical transition and competing in a category opposite to their gender assigned at birth.
Unfortunately for Rowling, Musk, Donald Trump and other defamers, neither Khelif nor Yu-ting are transgender. They have never identified themselves as trans or intersex, and only the spurious claims of ousted former Olympics boxing governing body, the International Boxing Association, suggest otherwise. No material proof of either competitor’s chromosomal composition or testosterone levels have ever been presented for unbiased review, and the IBA was banished from the Olympics last year for a lack of “integrity and transparency.” Suffice to say, the IBA’s trustworthiness is suspect.
Like any journalism outlet worth their salt, Assigned Media is keenly aware of the risks associated with slander and libel. Though journalists can and frequently do provide their own opinions when reporting, making harmful and baseless accusations about strangers is, simply put, a big no no.
With that in mind, we wholeheartedly support Imane Khelif’s legal inquest against these losers, and hope she’s vindicated in a timely and spectacular fashion!
Alyssa Steinsiek is a professional writer who spends too much time playing video games!
