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https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/04/female-athletes-of-color-gender-00172592>
"PARIS — Overcome with emotion, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif left the ring in
tears after a resounding victory this weekend. Khelif has faced days of hateful
comments and false accusations about her gender following her first fight
against an Italian opponent who quit seconds into their bout.
“It’s because she’s African, because she’s Algerian,” 38-year-old Algerian fan
Adel Mohammed said Saturday, when Khelif clinched an Olympic medal. “These
comments are coming from white people … it’s a kind of racism.”
Female athletes of color have historically faced disproportionate scrutiny and
discrimination when it comes to sex testing and false accusations that they are
male or transgender, historians and anthropologists say. Khelif and Taiwanese
boxer Lin Yu-Ting, who won her bout Sunday after similar abuse and questions
about her gender, are the latest examples of women of color who have found
themselves caught in the contentious debate around gender regulations and
perceptions in sports.
On Sunday, Khelif said the wave of hateful scrutiny she has faced over
misconceptions about her gender “harms human dignity.”
“I send a message to all the people of the world to uphold the Olympic
principles and the Olympic Charter, to refrain from bullying all athletes,
because this has effects, massive effects,” Khelif said in Arabic. “It can
destroy people, it can kill people’s thoughts, spirit and mind. It can divide
people. And because of that, I ask them to refrain from bullying.”
More women from the Global South or developing countries are affected by sex
testing in sports, said Payoshni Mitra, director of the Center for Sport and
Human Rights, a human rights organization based in Switzerland. She has worked
with dozens of female athletes across Asia and Africa to fight sex testing
practices.
“Sport is very Eurocentric — the approach is not necessarily global,” Mitra
said. “We need to accept women in all their diversity. And we are not seeing
that at this point.”"
Via Frederick Wilson II.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
