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Actress who got death threats for choosing her line of work

11:46 AM Aug 22, 2021 | Team Udayavani |
While some porn is made consensually, others are not and it is difficult in deciphering which is which—what’s exploitative, and what’s coerced?
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Mia Khalifa, a social media personality, webcam model, and sports commentator, worked in the porn industry for three months in 2015 and still ranks on the top spot on certain adult film sites.

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Hailing from Beirut, she relocated to the US with her family in 2001 amid the conflict in Southern Lebanon.

Her family settled in Montgomery County, Maryland and she eventually moved away from home to attend the University of Texas where she graduated with a degree in history.

Mia married her high school boyfriend and began sharing NSFW images on Reddit, landing her a stint in the adult film world in 2014.

While sharing her experience of working in the adult film industry with BBC, Mia spoke out about the various aspects of the porn industry.

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She was widely criticized for working as an adult film star and even received death threats from the Islamic state.

She quit the industry shortly after and relocated to Miami where she worked as a paralegal and bookkeeper.

During her interview with BBC Hardtalk, Mia said, “After the interview came out, people started reaching out. All of my emails – my manager checks them. When he gets stuff like that, he filters them and sends them to me. And reading the words of some of these girls, who have been sex-trafficked and forced into porn, and all of these stories of girls whose lives have been ruined by it and by men, who have taken advantage of them, and by contracts that they didn’t even understand the jargon of, it makes me feel like, okay, maybe it was good that I started talking.”

Mia now runs a YouTube channel and live streams on Twitch.

She shares insight about sports and players on her social media accounts.

In 2019, Mia announced her engagement to Swedish chef Robert Sandberg.

Mia’s net worth is approximately $4 million.

Talking about the time when she worked in the porn industry, Mia said, “I think post-traumatic stress kicks in mostly when I go on public. Because of the stares I get, I feel like people can see through my clothes. And it brings me deep shame. It makes me feel like I lost all rights to my privacy, which I did because I am just one Google search away,”

Mia asserted that initially, her family had no idea about her stint in the adult film industry, “And they disowned me when they found out. I felt completely alienated by not just the world, but my family and the people around me. Especially after I quit, when I was still alone, even though I left. And I just realized some mistakes aren’t forgivable. But time heals all wounds, and things are getting better now,”

Mia admits that she initially agreed to the contract, she said that she would now go back and change that decision if she could.

She acknowledged that while she wasn’t physically abused, many women and girls have since contacted her and shared their stories of exploitation. She claimed that some girls were victims of sex trafficking, some were coerced to perform in porn, and others pushed to sign contracts they didn’t understand.

While some porn is made consensually, others are not and it is difficult in deciphering which is which—what’s exploitative, and what’s coerced?

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