She explained she left the trade shortly after being persuaded to do an explicit scene cosplaying as a Muslim woman, but couldn’t turn the clock back on her past.
The Lebanese-American shot to fame as a 21-year-old when she performed in the viral video dressed in the hijab, a headcovering and piece of modest clothing sacred to Muslim women.
The footage went viral within hours, with Khalifa receiving death threats from both Islamophobes and ISIS alike, after being ranked the number one actor on Pornhub.
Now 31-years-old, Khalifa – who was raised as a Catholic – recalls the experience and why it pushed her to walk away from pornography.
“My brand at the beginning wasn’t something that was much in my control. I became infamous by accident. I was working at a law office, and I started to feel like a distraction in the office.
“Anyone who would come in, I, there would be whispers in the waiting room. And if other attorneys came to visit from other firms, there would be whispers within that.
“And I just started to feel very much like a distraction, and uncomfortable. And that’s when I realized, like, this isn’t going to change. This isn’t going to go anywhere. This isn’t going to get better. I don’t like feeling this way. I don’t like the women that I work with looking at me a certain way, and I especially don’t like the men looking at me a certain way.
