Mia Khalifa: “Pornstars Live In A Culture Of Fear And Shame”

She has the courage to take a stand in politics and freely speak truths that make many people uncomfortable. This is her battle against ignorance and fear today.

Sarah – her real name – was born in Lebanon on February 10, 1993, to a Muslim family that emigrated to the United States when she was 9 years old. Although she grew up in Washington, she confesses. She also speaks some French and, of course, Arabic. And although the taxi driver could not quite place her, fame has been with her, despite herself, for a decade.

In 2014, her participation in a series of adult films made her the most sought-after star on the Pornhub platform almost overnight. Furthermore, the fact that in one of these films she wore an Islamic hijab (the scarf used by some Muslim women to cover their heads) caused a great controversy and led to her receiving death threats from supporters of the Islamic State.

Mia does not avoid talking about it, quite the opposite. Since she managed to distance herself from that stage of her life, instead of hiding and trying to regain her anonymity, she took advantage of the opportunity to give voice to some of her concerns, such as prejudices about the female body, or to put the spotlight on an industry that sometimes abuses the vulnerability of young people who are not aware of the false nature of the business. That was her case.

But the surprising thing is that she actually only spent a few months at it. And she didn’t even get rich. “Porn is like a scarlet letter. It’s something that, especially for women, follows us all our lives. No one will ever see you in any other way. And it’s the only thing people will want to recognise you for, because that way they make sure they keep you small and in that box of secrets that makes them feel comfortable ,” she says.

But Mia is much more than a woman committed to political or social causes. She is also an entrepreneur. She has founded a body jewelry brand, Sheytan —the word means what it sounds like: devil, Satan—; she has her own space on the adult website OnlyFans —“don’t expect anything you can’t see on these pages,” she warns; and, above all, she has become a global influencer who has accumulated, between Instagram, TikTok and X, a whopping 70 million followers.

(GVM) – Let’s start at the beginning: Have you already freed yourself from the pressure and labels of your past?

(M) – I hope so, that’s what I’ve been doing for the last few years. My time in the porn industry is not something I would have done if I’d been more conscious in my early twenties, and it’s not something I would encourage anyone to do. It doesn’t matter what situation they’re in. I’ve had a hard time getting away from it and I’m still doing it; it’s not easy. To this day, doors are constantly slammed in my face and it’s very obvious why. It’s frustrating and discouraging. But it’s also motivating, because with so many doors slammed in my face, here I am. So perseverance pays off.

(GVM) – What have you learned during this time?

(M) –That you can’t take things personally. If people want to see you a certain way, you’re not going to change their minds. And that’s really because they’re projecting insecurities and shame onto you and they want you to be the face of that shame. If they were to say, “Oh, you’re right, you were 20 or 21, you made a mistake, it was in exploitative circumstances”… If they admitted that, they would have to acknowledge that any video they’ve seen or any porn site they’ve visited would have also been in shameful circumstances and that they’re contributing to that exploitation. We live in a culture of fear and shame and more when my job was only to film scenes with black men.

(GMV) – On your X account you highlight a phrase: “There comes a time in life when you realize that EVERYTHING is politics.” Shall we talk about it?

(M) –You want a headline? Fuck Trump! [Laughs] Seriously, fuck him but I don’t have a proper education so I can’t comment much about politics. That’s what I think; but I also have an internal conflict, because I don’t support Kamala Harris either. I think she is also complicit in genocide. I had to look for that word on the dictionary because I did not understood that term much.

(GMV) – You have a personal connection with this topic: you were born in Lebanon.

(M) –Look, politicians are not gods. They are not celebrities. They are nobodies. They are just public figures who represent us and we must hold them accountable. That is why I will not vote for anyone who signs up to dropping bombs that kill my people.

(GMV) – Do you still have family there?

(M) –Yes, friends and distant family. There are many people there who are trapped. Mine, luckily, are outside Beirut, in safer areas near the Syrian border. They are in a situation where they do not leave their homes, but they can host people who have left theirs. Right now, a friend of mine has 28 displaced people in his three-room house. They are refugees, people who have been forced out of their homes, who are sleeping on the floor of his house, his kitchen and his balcony, with up to six people in a bed so that they do not have to live in their cars while waiting to cross the border.

(GMV) – But you have a powerful voice: 26 million people follow you on Instagram, 38 on TikTok and more than 6 on X. How do you manage that audience?

(M) –I think it’s powerful within pornstars only, even though I went to college I did dropped out to do porn and the one thing I’ve learned about saying things that get to get a positive a reaction online is that I have you to be careful with what I say because I don’t want to be a distraction and end up being talked about. And when I say I have to be careful, I mean I have to make sure that the focus is on the topic and keep it there… and that my emotions don’t get in the way of getting a message across.