August 03, 2024 11:11 am IST
Singer Chinmayi Sripada shared a childhood photo of Iman Khalif, who was trolled for participating in a women’s boxing match at the Paris Olympics.
Singer Chinmayi Sripada, known for her outspoken views on social media and as a women’s rights activist, has spoken out in favour of Iman Khalif. The Algerian boxer is being trolled for participating in a women’s boxing match at the Paris Olympics and defeating her opponent despite failing the unspecified and opaque eligibility tests for women’s competition from the now-banned International Boxing Association last year. (Also Read – ‘Like a man beats a woman’: Kangana Ranaut reacts to ‘natural male’ boxer breaking opponent’s nose during Olympics)
What did Chinmayi say?
Chinmayi shared a childhood photo of Iman and wrote, “Iman Khalif was born a woman. She is not a man. *In Algeria, the country she represents, the right to change your gender is illegal and banned.* Indians harassed and tormented Shanthi Sundararajan, a brilliant player, simply because she didn’t look like what they would expect a woman to look like. I hope Iman is okay. She is going through global bullying and it feels horrible. This is Iman Khalif as a child.”
Chinmayi responds to J.K. Rowling
JK Rowling, the bestselling British author who wrote the Harry Potter books, was one of those who criticised Iman’s participation in the women’s boxing match. She shared a photo of Iman with her opponent Angela Carini after the match and wrote on X, “Could any picture better express our new men’s rights movement? The smile of a man who knows he is protected by a misogynistic sporting establishment, after punching a woman in the head and whose life’s ambitions he has shattered.”
Chinmayi also responded to JK Rowling by re-sharing Iman’s childhood photo. She wrote in the caption, “How heroes fall. Someone please show this photo to JK Rowling. I am sure Rowling will have no regrets for whatever she has done to Iman on a global scale because she belongs to a religion and race that the average white man does not like.”
International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams said on Friday that Iman Khalifa “was born a woman, registered as a woman, has lived her life as a woman, has been in the box as a woman, has a female passport.” He warned not to “turn this into some kind of witch-hunt.”
