J.K. Rowling has gone silent on X since being named in a legal complaint by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif over online harassment she faced during the 2024 Olympics.
The “Harry Potter” author hasn’t posted on X since two weeks ago in a departure from her usually outspoken social media presence.
On her last day active on the platform on Aug. 7, Rowling posted nine times, including one that seemingly referred to the gender controversy surrounding Khelif.
“For the record, bombarding me with pictures of athletic women to ‘teach’ me that women don’t all look like Barbie is like spamming me with pics of differently-shaped potatoes to prove rocks are edible,” Rowling wrote. “I can still see the difference and you look frankly bonkers.”
Khelif became a lightning rod after beating Angela Carini in an opening-round bout in Paris after the Italian conceded the fight after just 46 seconds, leading to figures like Rowling and Elon Musk to accuse her of being a man fighting in a women’s sport.
“Elon Musk, [Donald] Trump, this thing that affected me, I’m not lying to you, it affected me,” Khelif said in a post-Olympic interview. “It affected me a lot, it hurt me a lot. I can’t describe to you the amount of fear I had. I was afraid that I would say, why did Imane Khalif insist on this?
“Why was there an uproar from big politicians around the world? I was afraid, but thank God, I was able to overcome this stage thanks to the specialists who helped me overcome this stage. The scenario was very scary. Thank God, all the people of Algeria and the Arab world knew Imane Khelif with her femininity, her courage, her will.”
Khelif, who allegedly failed a gender test at an International Boxing Association competition in 2023, would go on to win the gold medal in the 66kg boxing division.
“The idea that those objecting to a male punching a female in the name of sport are objecting because they believe Khelif to be ‘trans’ is a joke,” Rowling wrote in a post on X a day after Khelif’s win over Carini. “We object because we saw a male punching a female.”
The International Olympic Committee defended its decision to let Khelif and Taiwan boxer Lin Yu-ting, who also faced questions about her gender, participate in this year’s Summer Games.
Khelif, who is listed as being female on her passport, has been “greatly affected” by the online scrutiny she’s faced since her 2024 Olympics debut.
“Imane has been greatly affected by this situation. (She said) ‘Why me?’” Mohamed Chaoua, Khelif’s boxing coach, said. “She has not surrendered to this campaign (of abuse). She has given them a lesson in ethics.”
