Paris 2024: Intersex Associations, “On Imane Khelif, Profiteering Harms Dignity”
An “indecent” discussion is underway about the Algerian intersex boxer Imane Khelif. There has been “media and social scaremongering that is damaging to the dignity of an athlete and, first and foremost, of a person”. This is the position taken by the group of intersex associations Forum Vcs (Aisia Odv, IntersexEsiste Aps, Intersexioni, Genitori e bimbi intersex mai più soli), together with the association ‘Certi diritti’ for which the case of Khelif – like the previous one of Caster Semenya and others like it – represents “a very sad page in world sport that should spread inclusiveness, participation and respect for the individual among its founding values”.
Khelif, the joint statement reads, “is an intersex woman and has met all the requirements set by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to participate in women’s competitions, including those on testosterone levels. This means that, according to the regulations currently in force, she was fit for that ring. Not so fit to comment on the story, however, many keyboard warriors, journalists and otherwise. It is sadly paradoxical that a condition like ours hits the headlines only in the case of political exploitation, when it seems to be a presumed and unproven ‘advantage’ compared to the rest of the population, while – when we talk about our denied rights – it is totally silenced”.
“Intersex people, let us remember – the associations highlight – are born with variations in sex characteristics that include a wide spectrum of conditions, chromosomal, phenotypic and hormonal. Most are women, others are men, others are non-binary, but all legitimately deserving of protection. Often in the course of their lives they are subjected to non-consensual decisions, surgical or otherwise, on their bodies, with the presumption of normalizing them, but with the sole consequence of physically, psychologically and socially mutilated”.
The controversy of these days “adds a further violence that marks every component of our community. Excluding an athlete on the basis of genetic or hormonal characteristics limits individual freedom and the principle of equality that should be spread and protected every day, in every place”, insist the authors of the declaration. “From all of us – they conclude – goes our most sincere solidarity to Imane, to her right to compete, to her commitment to self-determination as an athlete and as a person, within the limits that are allowed to her by sporting competitions, and our best wishes, hopeful, indeed, certain, that a controversy of this type will not stop her desire to win and her ambitions, which, fortunately, can overcome the worst defamations”.
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