Mia Khalifa

Mia Khalifa
Native name ميا خليفة
Born (1993-02-10)February 10, 1993
(age 23)[1]
Beirut, Lebanon
Residence Miami, Florida, U.S.
Nationality Lebanese American
Other names Mia Callista[1]
Occupation
Years active 2014–2015
Known for Ranked #1 on Pornhub in December 2014
Height 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m)[1]
Weight 121 lb (55 kg; 8.6 st)[1]
Website miakhalifa.com
No. of adult films 23 (per IAFD)[2]

Mia Khalifa (Arabic: ميا خليفة‎‎; born February 10, 1993), also known as Mia Callista, is a Lebanese American social media personality[3] best known for her successful, albeit brief, career as a pornographic actress and adult model in 2014–2015.

Born in Beirut to a Lebanese family and resident in the United States since 2000, Khalifa began acting in pornography in October 2014, and by December was ranked the number 1 performer on the website Pornhub.

Her career choice was met with controversy in the Middle East, who branded her career choice as shameful and Khalifa herself a disgrace to her country, especially for one of her videos, Mia Khalifa Is Cumming For Dinner (a play on Guess Who's Coming to Dinner), filmed by Bang Bros, in which she is seen wearing a hijab.[4]

She was the subject of an eponymous song by the band Timeflies and an advertisement by the Lebanese brewery Almaza. She left the pornographic industry after three months and now has a "more normal job".[3] An online petition has called for Khalifa to be appointed by President-elect Donald Trump as the next United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.[5]

Early life

Khalifa was born in Beirut, Lebanon and moved with her family to the United States in 2000.[6] She has claimed that her family is Catholic and that she was raised in that religion, although is no longer practicing.[7] She lived in Montgomery County, Maryland as a teenager and played lacrosse at high school.[3] A few years later she graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History.[8] In February 2011, shortly after she turned 18, Khalifa married an American man.[6]

Pornographic career

Khalifa entered the pornographic film industry in October 2014.[9] She had been working at a Whataburger when she was approached by a customer who asked if she had ever considered appearing in pornographic films.[10][11] With more than 1.5 million views, the 22-year-old Khalifa became the most searched-for star on adult movie site Pornhub.[9] On December 28 that year, Pornhub revealed that she was the #1 ranked porn star on their website.[12]

Perhaps better known as ‘The hijab porn star’, Khalifa hit the headlines in 2014 when she infamously humped on camera wearing the traditional Muslim garb. The BangBros film initially sparked outrage in her home country of Lebanon with haters claiming she had brought disgrace to the nation and insulted Islam. Khalifa stated in an interview with Loaded that she felt she is being made a scapegoat for internet censorship in her native land, and many others there have since demonstrated against the government, showing support for the American porn star. They claim that although she may have sex, ‘She is still more decent than they are’.

“
”

— Loaded magazine, July 2016.[13]

She received online death threats after she ranked number 1 as pornstar on pornhub.com, including a manipulated image of a Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant executioner preparing to behead her, and a message warning her that she would go to Hell, to which she replied "I've been meaning to get a little tan recently".[14] Lebanese newspapers wrote articles critical of Khalifa, which she considered trivial due to other events in the region.[15]

In an interview with The Washington Post, Khalifa said the controversial scene was satirical and should be taken as such, claiming that Hollywood movies depicted Muslims in a far more negative light than any pornographer could.[14] Among those who publicly spoke out to defend her decision to become an adult performer was British-Lebanese author Nasri Atallah, who stated, "The moral indignation ... is wrong for two reasons. First and foremost, as a woman, she is free to do as she pleases with her body. As a sentient human being with agency, who lives halfway across the world, she is in charge of her own life and owes absolutely nothing to the country where she happened to be born."[14] Khalifa herself said of the controversy: "Women's rights in Lebanon are a long way from being taken seriously if a Lebanese-American porn star that no longer resides there can cause such an uproar. What I once boasted to people as being the most Westernized nation in the Middle East, I now see as devastatingly archaic and oppressed."[14][16]

According to data from PornHub, from January 3 to 6, 2015, searches for Khalifa increased five-fold. Around a quarter of those searches came from Lebanon, with substantial searches also from nearby countries Syria and Jordan.[7] Because of the hijab-related controversy, she was ranked #5 in a list of "The world's 10 most notorious porn stars" by British men's magazine Loaded in July 2016.[13] Almaza, a Lebanese brewery, ran an advertisement showing a bottle of their beer next to Khalifa's signature glasses, with the slogan: "We are both rated 18+."[17] In January 2015, electronic music duo Timeflies released a song titled "Mia Khalifa" in homage to her.[18] In response, she posted a video to YouTube featuring herself twerking to the song.[19]

In a July 2016 interview with The Washington Post, Khalifa revealed she had only performed in pornography for three months and had left the industry over a year before, changing to a "more normal job". She said "I guess it was my rebellious phase. It wasn’t really for me. I kind of smartened up and tried to distance myself from that."[3]

Personal life

Khalifa resided in Miami, Florida during her pornographic career and then relocated back to Texas.[3] Khalifa is a fan of Florida State Seminoles football and attempted to recruit Ohio State quarterback Braxton Miller to transfer to Florida State through social networking.[20] After ending her pornographic career, she used her social media presence of over 1 million Twitter and 300,000 Instagram followers to support the professional sports teams from the Washington, D.C. area,[3] including the Washington Redskins, Washington Wizards and the National Hockey League's Washington Capitals of whom her favorite player is Andre Burakovsky[21] Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post observed that despite her change of career, Khalifa's social media feed was "still a bit more risque than that of, say, Ben Bernanke".[3]

She has a tattoo of the opening line of the Lebanese National Anthem, and another of the Lebanese Forces Cross. She got the latter in 2012 after a bombing in Lebanon, stating it was to "show solidarity with my father's political views". Both tattoos have come under the scrutiny of her detractors.[14]

Khalifa has also said that her parents have stopped speaking to her because of her career choice.[14] In a statement, her parents disassociated themselves from her actions, saying that her decision to enter the porn industry was born of her residence in a foreign country which had a different culture than theirs, and that her actions did not reflect her upbringing. They also said that they hoped that she would leave pornography, saying that her image did not honor her family or her home country.[6]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Fay Strang (January 5, 2015). "Who is Mia Khalifa? Everything you need to know about Lebanese beauty who's PornHub's number one porn star". Daily Mirror. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  2. ↑ Mia Khalifa at the Internet Adult Film Database
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dan Steinberg (July 13, 2016). "A former porn star has become one of D.C.'s loudest sports fans on social media". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 13, 2016.
  4. ↑ http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/behind-the-rise-in-hijab-porn
  5. ↑ "Petitioners suggest Trump name US-Lebanese ex-porn star as Saudi envoy". The Jerusalem Post. November 29, 2016. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
  6. 1 2 3 Laura Smith-Spark and Roba Alhenawi (January 7, 2015). "Songs and death threats for Lebanese American porn star Mia Khalifa". CNN. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Mia Khalifa, a Lebanon-born porn star, is getting 'scary' death threats". BBC. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  8. ↑ Taylor Wofford (January 6, 2015). "Meet Mia Khalifa, the Lebanese Porn Star Who Sparked a National Controversy". Newsweek. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Why porn is exploding in the Middle East". Salon. Alternet. January 15, 2015. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Mia Khalifa's parents furious over porn career". Ya Libnan. January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 19, 2015.
  11. ↑ Ogilve, Jessica (2015-07-24). "Inside Mia Khalifa's Mysterious Rise To Porn Superstardom". Complex. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  12. ↑ Adam Taylor (January 6, 2015). "The Miami porn star getting death threats from Lebanon". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  13. 1 2 "The world's 10 most notorious porn stars – Mia Khalifa". Loaded. July 13, 2016. Retrieved July 17, 2016.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Saul, Heather. "Mia Khalifa ranked site's top adult actress". The Independent. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Lebanese porn star Mia Khalifa sparks controversy in Lebanon". Lebanese Examiner. January 3, 2015. Retrieved July 19, 2016.
  16. ↑ Nick Kotecki (January 7, 2015). "Lebanese American porn actress Mia Khalifa receives death threats". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  17. ↑ Kotecki, Nick (January 7, 2015). "Lenanese American porn actress Mia Khalifa receives death threats". Pittsburgh Sun-Times. The Sun-Times Media Group. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  18. ↑ Gil Kaufman (January 7, 2015). "Hijab-Wearing Porn Star Mia Khalifa Got Her Own Theme Song Courtesy Of Timeflies". MTV. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Mia Khalifa – Timeflies".
  20. ↑ Jimmy Traina (January 15, 2015). "Porn star/FSU fan makes offer to Ohio State QB Braxton Miller". The Buzzer. Fox Sports. Retrieved January 17, 2015.
  21. ↑ "Mia Khalifa Fancies Hockey Player Andre Burakovsky of the Washington Capitals, And More!". Master Herald. May 9, 2016. Retrieved July 8, 2016.

External links

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