Mulé: “Imane Khelif is not Frankenstein. Only fake news from the Russians”

«Imane Khelif It’s not Frankenstein, we owe respect to a woman and an athlete. Rather, what happened at the Olympics should make us reflect and intervene in the world of sport that has remained behind.” George MulèForza Italia MP and vice president of the Chamber, is the first within the government majority to speak clearly in defense of the Algerian boxer.

Honorable Mulè, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke of a fight “not on equal terms” between the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif and the Italian Angela Carini. Was the Prime Minister wrong to exploit the issue?

“You can’t politicize or throw into politics such a delicate issue. There is a fundamental problem, you have to respect people. The Algerian athlete is not Frankenstein, she is not a freak of nature, if anything it is nature that joked with her.”

Imane Khelif is a woman but has higher hormonal values. Yet Meloni said that having “male genetic characteristics” she should not have been admitted to women’s competitions. Doesn’t that seem like discrimination to you?

“The rush to take sides is wrong. Meloni didn’t say anything incorrect. In this circumstance ignorance came out, transgender was confused with intersexuality and none of us are familiar with intersexuality. Khelif didn’t resort to subterfuge, she didn’t make fun of the rules, she’s a victim of nature and it’s not her fault if she has higher testosterone levels.”

Yet the Lega MEP Roberto Vannacci spoke of a world turned upside down that needs to be straightened out.

“The rush to earn a tweet has brought with it judgments that are unfounded. Vannacci said that the Algerian boxer has more chromosomes than a man. So what? Should she be stoned? Khelif did not cheat, she is someone who follows the rules and has a chromosome that did not depend on wanting to distort the rules of the game.”

Why then was Carini, embraced by Meloni, considered a victim by many of her majority? Is it conservatism?

“If someone wants to attribute a patriarchal gesture to Meloni, they are wrong. Hers was a heartfelt reaction, which would have been tarnished if there had been a judgment on the Algerian. But the prime minister did not give an ethical and moral judgment.”

How do you explain the rush to side with Carini?

“The rush to side with the Italian has a thousand sporting reasons and perhaps this story can convince everyone to think about the world of sport, which is behind. Events and changes must be governed.”

How?

“Rather than intervening with stopgap measures, we should reflect on the acronym Lgbtqia+, whose meaning many do not know. We need to bring order to the recognition of rights, of all kinds. We are not talking about surrogate motherhood, we are talking about rights.”

Are you proposing legislative intervention?

“We can think about a commission or a group of experts appointed by Parliament, anything as long as they are not divisive laws. I propose a sort of code of rights that gives recognition to anyone who lives a different sexuality or is forced by nature to guard against prejudice.”

The intellectual Caroline Fourest, director of the weekly Franc-Tireur, said that “with the help of the far right, Moscow wants to try to destabilize Paris 2024”. Do you see an intervention in this affair?

“The Russians try with fake news, with pollution and in this case they also tried to rig the cards. Carini and the federation did well to refuse any kind of recognition, they would have been exploited and that’s not how it should have been”.