Imane Khelif Was Not Featured On The Cover Of Vogue Algeria
The Claim
A photo of Imane Khelif that seems to appear on a brand called Vogue Algeria, wearing the traditional Algerian outfit with gloves printed with the Algerian flag.
News posted on
Emerging story
A few weeks after winning the Olympic Gold Medal, some photos of Imane Khelif went viral on X claiming that Vogue published her photo on its cover.
Some users also shared a photo of her wearing another traditional Algerian costume appearing on Vogue Algeria, along with another photoshopped photo of her also appearing on Vogue.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar investigated the photos and found them to be fake.
Vogue Algeria Does Not Exist
Upon searching the keywords of the claim, Misbar’s team found Vogue magazine does not issue Vogue Algeria.
Condé Nast has a page on its website including all of the brands Vogue has. No brand called “Vogue Algeria” could be found among them.
AI-generated Photos Of Vogue Cover
After conducting a reverse image search, Misbar did not find any records of the photos on any credible news outlet.
Furthermore, the Algerian boxer did not post any photos on her accounts of her posing for pictures for Vogue cover, and there were no photos of her or any reports from credible media outlets on Imane Khelif posing for Vogue covers.
Misbar’s team ran one of the viral images on an AI image detector called Hive and found the image to be 99.9% AI-generated.
The other photoshopped photo of her gave a result of 82.7%. It could mean that the image was originally used by AI applications and Photoshop or other manipulating programs.
A reverse image search of the three photos indicated that all three photos were published by an Instagram account, called cheikh_boumsersseb. The user identifies himself as an art director.
In one of the three photos of Imane, the user clarified that the artwork featuring Imane Khelif are products of his own imagination meant to celebrate Khelif’s talent and cultural significance, confirming and adding that, “This piece is an artistic expression, not an official statement.”
Olympic Athlete Who Sparked Controversy For Days Inspires Others
Controversy had been looming over the Algerian boxer Imane Khelif since she advanced through the women's boxing event in the 2024 Summer Games.
Khelif was accused of being transgender and not qualified to compete in women's boxing. Although Olympic officials defended her along with Taiwan's Lin Yu-Ting who had also been a target of the online controversy, the false claims did not stop.
Many of these claims in the disinformation campaign were debunked and clarified by Misbar's team.
Despite the campaign launched against her, Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women's boxing and became the first female boxer in Algeria, and the first African woman to win the Olympic gold.
Since then, Khelif has been seen as a hero. Many amateur boxing girls see her as their idol and model now. This celebration of Khelif is common among Algerians and local media has come up with a term, “Khelifmania,” describing it.
Read More
The Algerian Boxer Imane Khelif is Not Transsexual
Canada Faces More Allegations Amid Olympic Drone Spying Scandal
