Boxer Imane Khelif could sue JK Rowling after false statements

Olympic boxer Imane Khelif is done with the nonsense.

After JK Rowling posted a series of false, bad faith tweets earlier this week about the Algerian boxer, it unleashed a tidal wave of false statements and inaccurate reporting, culminating in a false headline published by the Boston Globe claiming that Khelif, a cisgender woman with differences in sex development, is transgender.

Now, Khelif could have grounds to sue.

In a recent tweet, now revealed to be fake, someone using Khelif’s name has already threatened Rowling. Khelif herself has not spoken out as of yet.

I will sue you , and behind me all Algeria.

— Imane Khelif (@Imane__khelif) August 3, 2024

Entertainment with an edge

Whether you’re into indie comics, groundbreaking music, or queer cinema, we’re here to keep you in the loop twice a week.

Khelif, whose Olympic win has been grotesquely overshadowed by TERF comments by Rowling and Riley Gaines about her gender, would be well within her rights to sue for slander or defamation. Previous to Khelif’s Olympic fight with Italian boxer Angela Carini, Khelif had been professionally fighting in women’s boxing without a whiff of controversy. After Rowling implied that Khelif was trans and had failed a “gender test” by the International Boxing Association—a body with its own history of scandals and issues—reporters started calling Khelif’s belonging at the Paris games into question.

Related

Conservatives are bashing an Olympic athlete for *checks notes* seeming trans?

Some folks have nothing better to do than create trans panic narratives…even around cis people!

But both Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting, who also came under fire for similar reasons, are both cis women with differences in sex development. They identify as cis women and use she/her pronouns.

Related

This shocking new photo of JK Rowling has trans folks wondering something

This might explain A LOT

To make matters even more disgraceful, Rowling attacked Yu-ting as well, under the same anti-trans principles.

Needless to say, Khelif and Yu-ting—both women of color—aren’t standing for it. Both women have been backed up by their home countries and the International ­Olympic Committee.

It’s far from the first time JK Rowling has used her platform to bully women who don’t fit her racist, transmisogynistic standards for womanhood, but it may be one of the first times her words get her into serious legal trouble. If Khelif sues, it could be a groundbreaking lawsuit that forces Rowling—a billionaire who lives in an allegedly moldy castle—to face real consequences for her bigotry.