We are proud and fiercely defensive of Imane Khelif – a new Algerian national hero

As something of a hate campaign against Khelif begins throughout the world, in Algeria people are offering unconditional support

The hate campaign against Imane Khelif has turned her into a national hero here in Algeria.
By seeking to denigrate and humiliate Khelif, her detractors have had the opposite effect. Her compatriots have made her a national cause that must be defended, supporting her quest for a gold medal in Paris.
After her victory over Luca Anna Hamori last week, Algerian television journalists reacted with applause in the studio, with that support spreading far beyond those who are working on the Games.
“The tears of Imane Khelif, victim of an absolutely indigenous campaign, who has once again shown herself to be absolutely irreproachable, gentle and immense, all the Algerian people love you Imane”, one Algerian user posted on X after her quarter-final triumph.
Another Algerian account posted: “Imane Khelif broke down in tears after her victory over Luca Hamori. The harassment she has suffered is just shameful. But don’t cry Imane, millions of people are with you.”
The support and praise was not limited to the general public either, with Algerian president Abdelmadjid Tebboune throwing his weight behind her Olympic cause and adding that she has honoured “Algerian women” along with the nation as a whole.
“Congratulations Imane Khalif, you have honoured Algeria, Algerian women and Algerian boxing,” President Tebboune said on X. “We will stand by you no matter what your results are. Good luck in the next two rounds, and forward Imane Khelif. Long live Algeria.”
There were also gatherings among France-based Algerians at the Paris Arena, where the boxing competition is being held, to show support for Khelif in the face of unrelenting criticism and an unprecedented campaign against her participation as a woman.
The support from back home in Algeria, Africa’s largest country, has seen citizens of all ages and from all backgrounds displaying their support for this young boxer, who hails from a conservative family. In television reports and on social networks, one after another told her to be proud and brave of her achievements.
The image of her father, Omar Khelif, who is unemployed and has been forced to justify his daughter’s status as a woman by showing her childhood photos and birth certificate to journalists, has irritated and even shocked many people.
“How, with everything that’s going on in the world, can celebrities find the time to attack a boxer, and one from a conservative and modest family?,” said Khadidja, a teacher who met Khelif in one of the districts of the capital city Algiers.
“I support her on principle”, says Khadidja, who admits that she has never seen a boxing match before, but that she now goes to watch all those of Imane.
Khelif’s neighbour, Fatima, a pensioner, decries “the media’s lack of culture and their malice in using a female athlete from an Arab country as a punching bag”.
Yacine Brahimi, a student, said: “Algerians, but not only Algerians, have organised a counter-offensive on social networks by publishing photos of Imane as a child and explaining that it is impossible in Algeria to pass off a man as a woman. We are a Muslim country”.
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In a society like Algeria, it’s very hard for a woman to take part in top-level sport, especially when it’s a sport like boxing that is perceived as being the preserve of men.
Khelif, Unicef’s national ambassador, has repeatedly reported all the social and financial difficulties she has had to face in order to make her dream come true. Now all of that is being put at risk once again, because people want to tell her she can no longer be a woman.