Mia Khalifa has been trending in the news lately after she seemed to hint that Drake sent her a “cringe-worthy” picture on Instagram. She stated that the famous person who reached out to her had a name that rhymes with “rake.” While everyone goes crazy over the rumor, they are missing the fact that the adult film actress has so much more to offer than just her involvement in the porn industry. Namely, she is a major champion for women’s rights in the Arab world whether or not she considers herself to be a feminist icon.
Khalifa is a Lebanese porn actress who was recently named the #1 adult star by Pornhub. While Khalifa hails from a country with a heavy Muslim population, her family practices Catholicism. In Lebanon, over 50 percent of people practice Islam, which is the world’s most oppressive religion when it comes to how women are treated. Just by her career choice, Khalifa is challenging traditional gender roles and rebelling against the Muslim view of women. She appeared in a film while wearing a hijab and has endured death threats over her right to her freedom of expression.
According to gender studies professor Fida Afiouni, Khalifa is turning the Arab world upside down with her acting, the International Business Times reports. Afiouni explains that the act of appearing in adult films is one of rebellion:
Mia is definitely a feminist. She willingly chose her occupation…. Being a porno star is her own feminist expression and a means of asserting control over her sexuality. I believe that it is this assertion of control over her sexuality that is driving people crazy in Lebanon, as this is a blatant defiance to the predominant patriarchal structures.
While this act of defiance can have a widespread impact on gender roles in Lebanon and other women’s future choices, Khalifa herself has stated that she is not a fan of the word “feminism,” telling The Washington Post that she hates the term. While Khalifa may dislike the word, she is an unwitting feminist icon. She is willing to take a stand for all women simply by her choice to make her own decisions about how she will wield her sexual power.
Khalifa feels intimately bonded to Lebanon: she has multiple tattoos related to her pride in her home country inked on various portions of her body, including part of the Lebanese national anthem. However, now that she has gotten so much heat from commentators there, her faith in the nation has wavered. “What I once boasted to people as being the most Westernized-nation in the Middle East, I now see as devastatingly archaic and oppressed,” she said recently.
Mia Khalifa may not even realize that she has so much more to offer than the pleasure people get from her films. Her willingness to endure death threats and isolation from her own family to pursue a career in the adult film industry is, in itself, a feminist act. The old saying goes “well behaved women rarely make history,” and Khalifa is no exception to this statement. Challenging the existing patriarchy by making one’s own choices despite the drawbacks promotes feminism, whether or not the woman likes the word itself. Harnessing one’s own sexual power is also an act of defiance and victory, especially in the face of Islamic oppression.
