Caster Semenya (right)

Furore South African athlete Caster Semenya (right) has been placed under the international spotlight after reports claiming that she is to face a gender probe.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

Then Santhi now Semenya

I believe by this time, half of the world (if not more) is aware of the story on the yahoo front page. That the world-champion South African runner is subjected to gender test amid concerns that she may not qualify as female.
What on earth does it mean?
I googled and landed on Santhi’s story. What struck me worst was the fact that she hails from India and that too a very poor family. As far as my experiences go it is highly unlikely that she might have gone through some surgical procedure intended to alter her gender and succeed in the race. In our country, we do not encourage sports as much anyways and that too for somebody who is born a girl.
I searched more, but I could not find a solid explanation for why she might have failed the test and not others. Isn’t it an paradox that Men can not be subjected to any gender test while women can?
And also, why do these tests come up only after somebody from farthest corners of the word, raised in the poorest poverty wins the world championship. If they are failed by a gamut of *gists , they are stripped of the medal and thrown to live or die (Santhi did attempt suicide) in social humiliation. It is beyond my imagination, what Santhi might have had to face after returning home, which was supposed to be a celebration. It should have been a glorious event for bringing pride. I mean, some set of chromosome can not deny the fact that she went through innumerous challenges and hardship to get there, wherever she was when subjected to the preposterous test.
My heart goes to out to all these women.
I speculate, since the authorities can always pop up these tests post championships, why don’t they rather make it compulsory prior to the competition. So that the world will never know, who non-women was it that might have gotten the record, or is it that they actually want such materials and media attention at cost of lives?