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What is the truth about the circulating claims on the gender of the Algerian boxer Iman Khelif?
A video circulating on social media features an interview with Algerian boxer (Imane Khelif), accompanied by a claim that she admitted to being a "male," based on her use of masculine terms like "drari (kids)," "soldier," and "champion."
The Truth
The circulated video consists of several clips excerpted from a television interview with Imane Khelif during her appearance on the program "Life Taught Me," broadcast by the Algerian channel El Bilad on October 2, 2022. In the interview, the Algerian boxer did not announce or "admit" to being male. On the contrary, she spoke about her life as a female and the challenges she faced before and after entering the boxing field and rising to fame.
Regarding the masculine terms she mentioned, she used them to describe a stage of her life and for her outperform in boxing and her ability to serve her country, Algeria, as following:
- At 7:34, she used the Algerian term "drari," which in classical Arabic means "children," followed by the word "young," to describe a stage of her life, not her gender.
"Drari" is derived from "tharariy," a plural of "Thuriyah," meaning human offspring regardless of gender.
- At 19:32, while talking about her coach when she was young, she said:
"On the first day, he said you will be an Olympic champion. He saw in me the potential for an Olympic champion project."
- At 39:05, she mentioned: "I am a soldier, I am enlisted," in response to the host's question about her military salute celebration upon winning. She expressed her love for her country and readiness to sacrifice for its anthem and flag in international arenas, not implying she is a soldier in the Algerian military as suggested.
In the same interview, during a phone call with her boxing coach, the one who discovered her talent (Mohamed Al-Shawa), Al-Shawa spoke about Imane using feminine expressions, describing her as "smart," a "dutiful daughter," and a "role model for female athletes."
Recently, the Algerian boxer faced a wave of people questioning her gender after the Italian boxer (Angela Carini) could not withstand a single punch from her just 46 seconds into their first match in the Women's Boxing Championship at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The skeptics claimed that Imane is a man, not a woman, and therefore should not compete in the Women's Boxing Championship. They used the International Boxing Association's (IBA) exclusion of Imane Khelif and a Taiwanese boxer from the Women's World Boxing Championship in New Delhi last year due to their failure to meet the eligibility criteria for women's competition, citing high testosterone levels.
However, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) withdrew its recognition of the IBA in 2023, after suspending it in 2019, due to government interference and financial issues. The IOC stated that the two athletes excluded from the World Championship were victims of a sudden and arbitrary decision. The exclusion decision came near the end of the 2023 World Championship without legal proceedings, according to the IOC.
Imane's father defended his daughter in television interviews, showing her childhood photos and her birth certificate, which records her as female.
For his part, the President of the International Olympic Committee, German (Thomas Bach), denounced the hate speech directed against the Algerian and Taiwanese athletes, saying,
"We are talking about women's boxing, and we have two boxers who were born as girls, raised as women, possess passports describing them as women, and have competed for many years as women. This is the clear definition of a woman. There was no doubt that they are women."
