Algeria’s Imane Khelif, right, walks beside Italy’s Angela Carini after their women’s 66kg preliminary boxing match at the 2024 Summer Olympics. (AP)
Women athletes from the lesser known parts of the world are challenging the White West’s domination — or rather its definition — of the Olympic games. And they are doing so while negotiating bigger challenges of politics, faith, society and resources, while being mothers to their children and caring for their families. They are without the machinery of power sports, but are upholding the true Olympic spirit, reminding us that individual will and talent can shine brighter than the strobes on the Seine.
Perhaps that’s the reason why a couple of them have roiled conservative observers who do not want a rules-based architecture founded by them to be toppled over. Particularly in France, the land of égalité. What else could explain the witch hunt against Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, with X owner Elon Musk and US presidential candidate Donald Trump labelling her as a man and author J K Rowling describing her as “a male who knows he’s protected by a misogynist sporting establishment enjoying the distress of a woman he’s just punched in the head.”
Khelif has a disorder of sex development, which means she had male XY chromosomes and male-range testosterone levels at birth. Her condition causes her testosterone levels to be inert, which means her power-packed punches are entirely her own. Nobody bothered to question the rules of admission till she knocked out Italian opponent Angela Carini in 46 seconds, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni sparking a row over her right to be in women’s sports. Khelif is not a transwoman nor is she seeking gender reassignment. But by labelling her as one, many have not only lumped women’s rights in the same minority/diversity basket as those of the LGBTQ+ community but stereotyped their physicality. A woman must look feminine and a non-binary person mannish. Worse, they have been reduced to an example of opportunities given. But, truth be told, over many editions of the Olympics, women have wrested these opportunities and created their own possibilities.
That’s why the combative nature of Khelif has shaken Anglo-Saxon pride. As has Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez, a third-time Olympian, who waited till she was knocked out from the last 16 to reveal that she was seven months pregnant. She detailed her twin challenges of not jeopardising either her pregnancy or performance as a “rollercoaster” ride. And if France has banned its women athletes from wearing the hijab, other countries are more than making up for it by going to the mats wearing it. Hijab-wearing Tina Rahimi from Australia will be the nation’s first female Muslim boxer. Safiya Al Sayegh, 22, is the first woman racing cyclist from the UAE. Nahid Kiani from Iran will be fighting for the taekwondo gold. Joining her will be Dunya Abutaleb of Saudi Arabia, who trained at a boys’ club because there were no girls to compete with. Tunisian 3,000m steeplechaser Marwa Bouzayani and Farzaneh Fasihi, Iran’s record-breaking 100-metre sprinter, will be challenging existing hegemonies on track and field. Since physicality is the ultimate test of endurance, these women are not making safe choices but going all out.
The Olympics is more than a coming out for these women athletes from tiny nations that may not contribute greatly to the world GDP. But it’s about breaking rules of a game that has forbidden them from being competitive on equal terms. Khelif had to dodge the punches of the boys in her neighbourhood who would harass her. That’s how she learnt how to land a hard punch. Her family, especially her father, did not approve of her training at a gym 10 km away.
In many non-Western societies, women anyway get second-hand treatment compared to home-grown male athletes. And in the global sports arena, they do not have the level-playing field that is available to their Western counterparts, be it in terms of resources or training. Their back stories propel them forward — because they cannot afford to look back.
Of course, theirs is a fight for human rights that’s not linked to any ideology or global agenda and, therefore, hidden from view. Ironically, Paris, which is known for its neutral ground and “woke” culture, has disappointed these women as they couldn’t tear down a Western mindset that loves stereotypes more than breakouts. Or convince people that the making of a sportswoman is not just about an entire sports machinery and superhuman feats, but a backyard drill with a will to win.
Would Khelif’s participation have created a social media storm had she not been an “exotic oddity”? Would reams have been written about her congenital condition had she been a White citizen of the first world? Elon Musk fears a “woke virus” after his child came out as trans. But all these women want is to be seen in the fullness of a talent that’s theirs — beyond the many boxes that the so-called civilised world wants to put them into.
rinku.ghosh@expressindia.com
