Imane Khelif has become the center of a lot of news reporting, but not because of her Olympic victory. That someone got hurt during a boxing match should be no surprise and isn’t news. What should surprise us and cause us all to reflect is when random people think they can decide whether someone they do not know is a man or a woman.
On the right is a photo of the woman is at the center of this. It isn’t a recent photo, but that may be helpful.
You see, there are people who claim to be Christians shouting loudly that the girl in the photo, Imane Khelif, who is now an adult and a boxer, is a man.
I have no knowledge of this woman’s chromosomes or her genitalia. I’m guessing neither do you. What we can confirm with certainty is that she was declared a girl at birth and has been raised that way.
Might she have a chromosomal anomaly of some sort? Possibly. Do we have evidence of that at present? No. The references to Khelif having failed a test was, according to all the sources that provide relevant details, a test of her testosterone levels. Many female athletes have higher levels of testosterone than the average woman. The use of such tests has been controversial in both the sporting and scientific communities.
In this brief article, I’m not going to claim to know things I don’t. I am going to appeal to you to not claim things that you don’t. I am not going to ask you not to empathize with Angela Carini who ended the fight with Khelif and sparked the recent flurry of reporting. You should empathize with her. But you should not do so at the expense of failing to empathize with Khelif.
Imagine that Imane is your daughter. How would you feel if there was a flood of random people the world over who do not know your daughter who suddenly began proclaiming loudly that she is not a woman? How would you feel if they insisted that she has no right to compete in the sport she loves when the rules of the sporting organizations say she can?
There is a serious lack of human decency on display at the moment. More worrying is how many of those who have appointed themselves into the role of sport and sex police would claim to be Christians.
The core of Jesus’ ethical teaching is known as the Golden Rule. Do to others what you would want done to you.
If you’re not a female boxer then it may be difficult to relate and to apply that principle. Hence my suggestion that you substitute another one.
Imagine that Imane Khelif is your daughter. Treat her the way you would want your own daughter to be treated.
That doesn’t mean you don’t advocate for whatever testing you think appropriate in women’s sports. It just means that you don’t claim to be in a position to decide someone else’s sex based on no relevant evidence.
My hope is that the result of this controversy will be that more conservative Christians reflect on the instincts that led them to cast aside Jesus’ teachings not only about how we treat others but about humility and the capacity for our own judgment to be wrong. My hope is also that, if it turns out that Khelif has female genitalia but a chromosomal anomaly, it will lead to a greater awareness of the fact that biological sex is more complex than a simple binary. I hope that if it turns out that Khelif simply has XX chromosomes but high levels of testosterone, it will lead more people to recognize that women and men are not all the same.
That’s my hope for the long term. For the short term, I would love to see some human decency, compassion, and respect. Those are bare minimums.
As a Christian, I expect from myself and other Christians a higher standard than that.
We are called to treat others as we want to be treated.
That teaching of Jesus includes Imane Khelif, without question.
Treat her how you would want your daughter to be treated.
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