Algerian Boxer’s Gender Identity Sparks Online Controversy Between Morocco and Algeria

Imane Khelif is a "woman beater," we can read in a post from the Moroccan page "Atlas Patriote" on X. Moroccan online media are also getting involved. "Imane Khelif, gold medalist and already at the center of debates over gender identity issues, is now at the heart of another scandal," writes the Hespress website. "Oumayma Belahbib victim of a Franco-Algerian controversy," headlines another Moroccan website. This affair has been "exacerbated by the already tense tensions between Morocco and Algeria," comments the online newspaper.

The Moroccan boxer Oumayma Belahbib, member of the International Boxing Association (IBA), is accused on social networks of being partly responsible for the media bashing against Imane Khelif. Many people accuse the Algerian boxer of being "a man" or a "transsexual" person after the very rapid abandonment of her Italian opponent Angela Carini during their fight. "I am accused of being at the origin of the plot against Imane, because I would be her competitor, because I am Moroccan and, because I am a member of the IBA," reacts Belahbib to Le Parisien. She claims to have received thousands of threatening and insulting messages on social networks, "more than 200 per day" since August 1, the day of the match between Imane Khelif and Angela Carini, but also "violent content containing her identity and her face." Belahbib assures that she is not responsible for it. "It’s a problem between these two boxers (Imane Khelif and Angela Carini) and I’m in the middle," she explained. Exasperated, Belahbib, who did not obtain her ticket for the Paris Olympics, filed a complaint for "cyberbullying" "insults", "death threats" and "defamation."

For her part, Imane Khelif filed a complaint for "aggravated cyberbullying" with the online hate crime unit of the Paris prosecutor’s office, her lawyer Nabil Boudi announced on Saturday, without specifying the parties targeted by the complaint. The investigation will determine who was "at the origin of this misogynistic, racist and sexist campaign" and will also look at all those who "fueled this digital lynching," he added.