From Schwarz Media. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am.
The crowd is absolutely roaring inside here at Sena Court at Roland Garros Stadium. Fifteen thousand fans have packed that stadium tonight to watch Iman Khalif. Most of the fans there are Algerian supporters and they have been backing her in one hundred percent of the way. They were cheering Iman Iman Iman.
When Imman Khalif won gold in the women's boxing over the weekend, she did it amid a global storm of abuse and vitriol.
The winner Horn points by unanimous decision, gold medalist and all Let Me champion in red from Algeria.
Ema Khalif has been targeted by everyone from Donald Trump to JK Rowling and Elon Musk over unfounded questions about her gender and eligibility to compete. After her resounding win, Emman Khalif said the attacks she's endured gave her gold medal an extra special taste. Today, Fox Sports News presenter and women's sports advocate Sam Squire's on the moral panic about fairness in women's sport and the long insidious history
of scrutinizing female bodies. It's Monday, August twelfth. So, Sam, maybe the best place to start this story is the moment when Algerian boxer Iman Khalif stepped into the ring to face off against Angelo Karini from Italy. Tell me what happened.
Well, this was just a preliminary match the sixty six kilogram divisions you mentioned. We had Imman Khaley from Algeria up against the Italian Angela Karini. They're both twenty five years old. Julia, It's important to note that in Mine had competed in Tokyo before she made it all the way through to the quarterfinals. This wasn't her first Olympics. You didn't hear about her in Tokyo, but you may have heard about her in the Paris Olympics. So the about lasted just forty six seconds.
So lead up from police.
Karini, after receiving a punch to the face, signaled for her head gear to be checked. Karina is asking to.
Get her headguard Titan.
Then she went back to a corner and then came back and got punched again, and then her team then signaled the end of the match that they were drawing. Joshi started crying and could be heard saying it's just not right. Karini. Then, as Khalif was declared the winner, fell to her knees and started sobbing. Jashi declined to shake Khalif's hand after the match.
Abandon in rin from Algeria.
She then after the match as well, made the comment that she had never been hit so hard in her life. There were comments that really ignited nothing short of a firestorm that absolutely went global, was fueled by a whole heap of misinformation and the IBA, the International Boxing Association.
Okay, before we go into that firestorm, let's talk a bit about Amman Khalif. What is her story and how did she become the boxer that she.
Is well in mine grew up in Ourgeria and growing up in Algeria, she actually learned to box as a way to protect herself. She grew up in a rough area. She wanted to protect herself against the local boys. And the bit of irony really is that the theme that she taught herself to prevent herself from being attacked. She's now being attacked for on the global stage.
And you mentioned these comments that Karini made after she lost about never having been hit that hard, But can you tell me how this went from someone after a match kind of being a bit of a sore loser to this international media storm and really what amounts to a moral panic?
Yeah, it really was a moral panic. And straight away after those comments, people started putting in mind in the spotlight. They started questioning her gender, questioning whether she was female, whether she should be fighting, whether there are safety issues here, and it just exploded. It got so out of hand so quickly. Controversy surrounding the gender of one boxer has.
Also so the Olympics thinks it's fair for a genetic male to punch a woman so hard in the face she quits and cries as long as this says female on her pastor deemed a biological male beating an Italian female opponent with the Italian crying out, I couldn't take it anymore.
And the whole world knew about it, had very prominent anti trans activists. You had people like JK. Rowling coming out, even Donald Trump.
They want to have men playing in women's sports.
You saw the boxer today, the Italian female boxer just saying I can't be two shots, tu shots you pulled the way she said, I can't fight this for twenty seconds too.
There were people also saying that she was intersects, that she had x Y chromosomes, that she had heightened testosterone. And it was really sparked from an event that happened last year with the IBA of the International Boxing Association. Iman Khalif was actually disqualified from the World Championships after allegedly failing an unspecified gender eligibility test. Now, this is a test that we haven't seen. It's a test that the results have never been published in the details of
which are really really vague. But there's a bigger story that's playing out between the IOC, the International Olympic Committee, and the IBA.
Okay, so these claims about Clief's gender, they stem from the International Boxing Association and this unspecified gender test, a test that, as you say, hasn't been seen, hasn't been published, and then this disqualification at the World Championships. So let's just interrogate the IBA's role here a bit more. Why is it doing these tests, how much credibility does it have, and what's going on between the IBA and the IOC.
Well, I think in order to get into the IBA, you have to understand the political landscape between the IBA and the IOC. Now, the IOC actually with drough its recognition of the IBA as boxing's governing body in twenty nineteen due to concerns over finance, over governance, and corruption credibility issues. It's important to note that IBA's president is a man called Umar Kremlev, a bit of a controversial character.
The IBA has deep ties to Russia as well. The IBA actually became the first governing body to essentially be expelled by the IOC in Olympic history. It had never come before, so it means the IBA doesn't run boxing at the Olympics. It means the IOC ran boxing at the Olympics. There is a lot of tension because of that decision between the IBA and the IOC. But last year in twenty twenty three, at the World Championship, State of squalified not only Imman and Khalif right before her
final match she was competing for the world title. It also came after she actually be a Russian opponent in the preliminary rounds. But they also disqualified another boxer from Taiwan called LYNW.
Tings getting through, and it demonstrated the chromosomes that we refer to within the technical competition rules that me boxers ineligible.
There was a lot of misinformation about this. They said that these gender tests showed elevated testosterone levels and they claimed that they carried the x Y chromosomes. The IOC came out quite strongly in support of them, telling media that they were born women, that they were raised women, their passports and women that this is not a case of a man fighting a woman.
The Algerian boxer was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passible. This is not a transgender case. So I just I know you're not saying it.
Even forced Iman Khaliff's own father in Algeria, he came out in support of his daughter and showed photos of her when she was a young girl, trying to prove that she was a woman and would it amusing, but it just couldn't control the moral panic that really set in.
Yeah, I mean, how awful for Amman, someone who's feeling the pressure you presume of trying to win gold at the Olympics and then has to withstand all of this as well. I can't imagine how difficult that would be.
Having your identity absolutely scrutinize and bullied on the global stage for the whole heap of misinformation. You don't have time to correct them. You know, she's there to win a gold medal and that's all that she wanted to do. You know, I think it's important to note as well as Angela Karini, who started this firestorm with the comments that she made after she fought Imman. You know, she's actually come out and apologized to Imman after.
This ja Iman finale.
She admitted that she was angry after the bout and that she didn't expect it to blow up in the way that it did. And if she saw Iman Khalif, if she passed her by on the street, then she would embrace Iman Khalif.
After the break the troubled history of testing testosterone, Sam, We've been talking about the moral panic that sprung up around our Durian boxer, Iman Khalif, And it's not just her. You mentioned Taiwan's linuting both of these athletes though they have competed at previous Olympics. So why do you think that in this moment, at this competition, misinformation about them spiraled so quickly?
You know, we had all kinds of media outlets taking information from one or another, and it was hard to actually find out what was happening here. We had all these former boxes coming out of the woodwork talking about protecting women's sports and protecting women's boxing and having a
problem with Imman competing in the Paris Olympics. You know, we didn't hear from these people when we're talking about equal pay or equal opportunities for women in boxing, or even when boxing for women itself was illegal even in Australia not that long ago. There's misinformation, but also there's just misunderstanding. People fear what they don't know, what they don't understand, what really challenges their sense of norm I mean,
it's not new. Women's bodies, especially in sport, have been heavily scrutinized for years and years and years, and this was just another case of women's bodies again being scrutinized unfairly.
Well, let's talk a bit more about that. Women's bodies, as you say, they have always been heavily scrutinized, particularly when it comes to sport. It seems like any female athlete who looks strong faces judgment about their appearance rather than their performance.
Well, I think that's it. I think some people have this notion of what makes up a female and a female athlete, and that is a very westernized model of what is a female athlete, And if you don't fit that mold, then questions are asked about your gender. We see it often, not exclusively, but we do see it disproportionately often when it comes to women of color. You know, we saw it with Serena Williams. She didn't fit the mold.
She was muscly, she was strong, she was I think just absolutely incredible, but she'd face questions over her gender throughout her career. We've seen it with Britney Griner. Martina Navratilova is another one. Even Katie Ldeki faces questions about her gender. And USA seven's rugby sensation one of my favorite new athletes alone Omar as well. You know, she doesn't fit the mold. All the attributes that make these women so strong absolutely genetic marvels, whereas marvels in men
don't get heavily scrutinized. Think of Michael Phelps, like he was a genetic marvel with these big flipper feet and that huge wingspan. You know, we celebrate that in men, but in women we scrutinize it, which is completely unfair. The IOC as well, they no longer do gender tests. They have a really tortured history of doing gender tests on women, making them basically stripped down and prove that
they were female. They measured testoscerone levels in women as well, and if they were too elevated then they would force them to take suppressants to bring those levels down. And there's just so many complications about this and the science is it right. We had the IOC come out as well and just say testosterone isn't the perfect test. You know, women have different levels of testosterone, They have different levels of testosterone on different days, at different stages. It isn't
a perfect measure, this measure of testosterone. It's some women have a negative effect. And I think it's also just few by misunderstanding of the science of female bodies. And it comes down to this very westernized stereotype of what a female athlete is that you know, if you don't fit that mold, then questions are asked.
Okay, So the IOC has backed these athletes and defended their right to compete. So this is not really a question of failure on behalf of the IOC. If that's the case, is this then less about how the sports world needs to do better and more about everyone else and about how we handle misinformation and assumptions and prejudice.
Absolutely, this definitely transcends sport, and the firestorm that we saw from this particular issue really showed us that as well. You know, people who may not follow the Olympics took an interest in this as well. This is a social issue. If something doesn't seem right, or if you are challenge by it, take the time to learn more about it and find more sources and reliable sources. You know, I have two little girls as well who are watching the
Olympics and watching these female athletes. I want my girls to grow up in a world where their bodies aren't police, where their bodies aren't scrutinized, to appreciate what their bodies can do, not what they look like.
Sam, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you.
Also in the news today, Australia's Olympic chief An Emirs has described the harassment of breakdancer Rachel Gunn as really disappointing. Gun known as Ray Gun, failed to score a point in the breakdancing event and was knocked out at the round robin stage. Her performance sparked widespread online jokes as well as bullying the event. Raygun defended herself, saying all
my moves are original. This is the first time breaking has been included in the Olympics and former President Donald Trump's presidential campaign has confirmed that its communications have been hacked after US new site Politico started receiving anonymous emails with documents from the campaign. Trump's campaign said that foreign sources hostile to the United States were behind the attack and suggested Iran may be involved, a claim that has
not been verified. That's all for today. If you enjoyed today's episode, we would so appreciate you sharing it with a friend. I'm Ruby Jones. This is seven am. Thanks for listening.