Mia Khalifa was only 11 years old when she left Lebanon with her Christian family for Maryland, in 2001.
No one imagined then the path her life would take. By 2014, she was already one of the most sought-after performers in the world, and that fame brought her both fans and brutal rejection, especially in the Middle East.
In 2016, her own family broke its silence with a written statement: they publicly distanced themselves from her, described her career as “unethical behavior” and said it did not reflect “the family’s beliefs, upbringing, and Lebanese roots”.
They hoped, in their words, that she would “find her way back to being a good girl”.
Mia responded on Twitter with a short phrase that sums it all up: “It still hurts to know that most of my home country is disgusted by me”.
Even so, she never removed the Arabic tattoos she wears on her skin, a piece of Lebanon that her own blood chose not to claim.