I’ve been behind the camera since 2001 and shot more than 2,000 scenes, and the most important word on any set I run is “stop.” Mia Khalifa says that at 21 she told four producers a scene could get her killed, and the room laughed. That clip is going viral again this weekend, and it should.
A 2019 interview is having a second life. On Friday, Oct. 30, an Arabic-language X account reposted a 6½-minute cut of Mia Khalifa‘s sit-down with Stephen Sackur on BBC HARDtalk, with a caption that reads like a rap sheet of everything that went wrong: 21 years old, a scene in a hijab, an ISIS beheading image days later, a family that cut her off, three months in the business, about $12,000, and videos she still can’t get taken down. The post passed 1.36 million views in under a day.
Below: the clip, every claim in that viral caption checked against what Mia has actually said on the record, what the studio disputes, and my take. Her full story, with every interview clip we host, is on Mia Khalifa’s Scandal Planet hub.
Watch: “You guys are going to get me killed”
Mia Khalifa on BBC HARDtalk, August 2019, 0:30. Sackur asks about the hijab scene. Her answer: “I verbatim told them, you guys are going to get me killed.” They “just laughed.” Why not refuse? “Intimidation. I was scared.” Transcript checked against the BBC broadcast transcript on the Internet Archive.
See it: the post that brought the clip back
On Oct. 30, 2026 the Arabic-language account @wlthmed700 reposted Mia’s 2019 BBC HARDtalk interview with a long caption telling her story. By Saturday morning Bangkok time it had passed 1.36 million views. Here is the post, embedded from the account that published it:
What happened: the scene, the threats, the fallout
Mia Khalifa, born Sarah Joe Chamoun in Beirut on Feb. 10, 1993, started shooting adult scenes in Miami in October 2014, at 21. She told Megan Abbott in 2019 that it started with a stranger in a car outside a shopping center who called her gorgeous and handed her a modeling card. She googled the company at home. It was a porn studio.
Within weeks the studio put her in a scene wearing a hijab. Mia, who was raised Catholic, has said the idea came from the producers. On HARDtalk she said she warned them in those exact words, and they laughed. She told The Telegraph the same story: “there were four producers in the room – they all just laughed at me and told me I didn’t know what I was talking about.”
The scene went, in her word, “wildfire.” “ISIS sent me death threats, they sent me a Google Maps image of my apartment,” she told BBC Newsbeat. “I stayed in a hotel for two weeks after that because fear really set in.” She has said her family disowned her, per VT. She stopped shooting in early 2015.
I’ll say it plainly because I’m in this business: when a 21-year-old tells a room of producers a scene could get her killed, the shoot stops. Not a debate, not a laugh. You change the scene or you send everyone home. That’s the job.
My take: the $12,000 vs. $178,000 fight is a sideshow. Take the studio’s own number and it’s still pocket change next to a channel with hundreds of millions of views. A performer should own a piece of what she made, or at least have a way to buy it back. Mia got neither, and she’s still paying for three months at 21.
Hear it in her own words, all four clips, on Mia Khalifa’s hub →
— Nico
The viral caption, checked line by line
- “She was 21.” True. Born February 1993, started in October 2014. Sackur put it to her on air: “you were 21.”
- “Days later, ISIS sent her a beheading image.” True as she tells it. She has described a Photoshopped image of her head on a beheaded body, then a Google Maps image of her apartment (BBC Newsbeat, Washington Post).
- “Her family disowned her.” That’s her account (VT).
- “She quit after three months with about $12,000.” That’s what she says: about $12,000 for her scenes, no residuals, no agent, no lawyer (BBC, HARDtalk). Disputed: in 2020 BangBros said she received “in excess of $178,000” from it and affiliated companies and worked in adult film and cam for longer than three months. It published no payment records, Vice reported.
- “Ten years on, she can’t get the videos taken down, and others still profit.” She told HARDtalk: “You have no right to remove them from anybody’s view around the world.” In 2020 a fan petition asking Pornhub and BangBros to remove her videos passed 1.5 million signatures (Evening Standard). Vice counted more than 642 million views on the studio’s Pornhub channel for her videos that year. We found no report that they have come down since.
Watch: “You have no right to remove them”
BBC HARDtalk, 2019, 0:55. Sackur asks whether she carries post-traumatic stress. “It kicks in mostly when I go out in public… I feel like people can see through my clothes and it brings me deep shame.” Then: “Those images, you cannot expunge.”
How we got here
- Oct. 2014: Mia, 21, starts shooting in Miami after the modeling-card approach (Megan Abbott interview).
- Late 2014: the hijab scene is released. For a time she is the No. 1 performer on Pornhub, as Sackur put it to her on HARDtalk; ISIS-linked threats follow.
- Early 2015: she stops shooting; later works as a paralegal and bookkeeper in Miami, then builds a sports-media career.
- Aug. 2019: the Megan Abbott interview, BBC Newsbeat and BBC HARDtalk. The $12,000 figure goes global (Washington Post).
- June-July 2020: BangBros disputes her numbers; the removal petition passes 1.5 million signatures.
- Oct. 30, 2026: the HARDtalk cut goes viral again on Arabic X.
Confirmed vs. disputed
On the record, in her own words: her age, the hijab scene and the producers’ reaction, the ISIS threats and the Google Maps image, the $12,000 figure, and that she can’t get the videos removed (BBC, HARDtalk, The Telegraph, Washington Post).
Disputed: how much she was paid in total and how long she worked in adult content. BangBros’ numbers are higher; neither side has published records.
Not known: whether she has commented on this weekend’s repost. As of Oct. 31 morning Bangkok time, we found no new statement.
Photos: Mia Khalifa, then and on HARDtalk
What to watch next
Every time this interview resurfaces, the old videos spike in search, and the studio said so itself in 2020. Watch whether Mia answers this repost the way she did in 2020, and whether the petition talk comes back. If she says anything new, we’ll add it here and on her hub.
FAQ
How old was Mia Khalifa when she filmed the hijab scene?
She was 21. She was born on Feb. 10, 1993, started in October 2014, and the scene came out in late 2014.
How much did Mia Khalifa earn from her adult videos?
She has said about $12,000 in total, with no residuals (BBC, 2019). BangBros said in 2020 that she received more than $178,000 from it and affiliated companies. Neither side published payment records, Vice reported.
Why can’t Mia Khalifa get her videos taken down?
She told BBC HARDtalk she has “no right to remove them” because she doesn’t own them. A 2020 fan petition asking Pornhub and BangBros to remove them passed 1.5 million signatures.
What did ISIS send Mia Khalifa?
She says ISIS supporters sent a Photoshopped beheading image and then a Google Maps image of her apartment, and she stayed in a hotel for two weeks (BBC Newsbeat).
Where is the viral Mia Khalifa clip from?
BBC HARDtalk with Stephen Sackur, August 2019. The Arabic X account @wlthmed700 reposted it on Oct. 30, 2026.
— Nico. She did three months at 21 and she’s been paying for it ever since. The rest of her story, with every clip, is on Mia Khalifa’s hub.
Fact-check: Scandal Planet Desk
Follow Nico on X @NicoGrey_XO for my takes before they hit the site.
What do you think? A grown woman who made a choice, or a 21-year-old the industry used? Tell us on X @celeb124.
Clips and stills: BBC HARDtalk (2019), short excerpts for news and commentary. Gallery: Mia Khalifa in 2016, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; 2024 photos from the Scandal Planet hub gallery. Cover and card use a HARDtalk frame.
Sources
- BBC HARDtalk: Mia Khalifa, with Stephen Sackur (August 2019)
- BBC News broadcast transcript, HARDtalk (Aug. 30, 2019), Internet Archive
- BBC Newsbeat: Mia Khalifa: Porn contracts ‘prey on vulnerable girls’ (August 2019)
- Washington Post: Mia Khalifa is among the world’s most-watched women, yet the porn industry is keeping the profits (Aug. 16, 2019)
- The Telegraph: Mia Khalifa on Isil, self-esteem and the ‘hijab sex scene’ (2019)
- Megan Abbott: Mia Khalifa Tells Her Story for the First Time (YouTube, 2019)
- VT: Mia Khalifa says her family disowned her
- Evening Standard: Petition to remove Mia Khalifa’s videos gets 1.5m signatures (July 1, 2020)
- Vice: BangBros is staging a public relations campaign against Mia Khalifa (2020)
- @wlthmed700 on X (Oct. 30, 2026)
