TIARET, Algeria: Algerian boxer Imane Khelif's impoverished homeland erupted with joy on Friday as she won gold at the Paris Olympics despite a major gender controversy.
Cries of Khlif's name and the country's famous chant “One, two, three, Wiwa Lajiri” resounded in Biban Mesbah, a town of about 6,000 people.
“This is a victory for Algeria,” her father, Omar Khlif, told reporters as he watched the fighting on a giant screen with others in the village about 300 kilometres (185 miles) southwest of Algeria.
Locals fired guns into the air to honor 25-year-old Cleif, who won her first Olympic medal after defeating China's Yang Liu in the women's 66kg final.
The joy also spread to the capital Algiers, where crowds stormed the city centre to celebrate the victory with fireworks and blaring car horns.
Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune congratulated the team on social media site X, saying: “We are all proud of you, Olympian Imane. Your victory today is Algeria’s victory, and your gold is Algeria’s gold.”
Before the battle of Kleif, hundreds of volunteers showed up at Biban Mesbah to help prepare for the big night.
Despite temperatures reaching 114 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius), men were still cleaning hard, while dozens of women were busy cooking giant pots of couscous.
“We agreed to give a new face to the village and give it a new lease of life with the victory of Iman Khlif,” her cousin Munir Khlif, 36, told AFP.
“We all helped each other. Some brought couscous, some brought oil and vegetables, while those who could not help with supplies helped prepare food,” said Amina Sadie, 52, a mother of six.
“We all stand together to support Imane Khelif, who honors Algeria. That’s the least we can give her,” she said.
The boxer has fallen victim to a social media hate campaign that has described her as a “man fighting women”.
“I am a strong, empowered woman. From the stage, I send a message to those who are against me,” she said Friday after her victory.
A gender conflict erupted in the French capital as Cleve defeated Angela Carini in 46 seconds in their opening fight. The Italian boxer was left in tears and ended the fight after suffering a serious nose injury.
Algerians from all walks of life have shown solidarity with Khleif and are outraged that her father was forced to show journalists her birth certificate to prove that she was born a woman.
Cleve's international athletic career began with her participation in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which were delayed due to COVID-19, where she finished fifth in her weight class.
In 2023, she reached the semifinals of the World Championship in New Delhi.
But she was disqualified after a gender test by the International Boxing Association, which is not recognized by the International Olympic Committee and does not organize the sport in Paris.
Coming from a poor family, she spoke before the Games about the hardships of her life in a “conservative village” in a semi-desert environment.
Imane said that at first her father found it difficult to accept her boxing.
“I come from a very conservative family, and boxing is not a very popular sport for women, especially in Algeria,” she told Canal Algerie a month before the match, smiling and soft-spoken.
In an interview with UNICEF, she said she used to sell scrap metal and her mother sold homemade couscous to pay for the bus fare to a nearby town.
