In porn, the hijab is more fetishized than ever

Article co-written by Sabrine Benmoumene and Aurélien Defer

“Are you really a black woman with glasses if your name was never Mia Khalifa? » It is with this provocative question that the former pornographic actress Mia Khalifa asked herself for a long time. A victim of her successful flashback in the mid-2010s when she appeared in several viral videos, the now Lebanese-born influencer has been criticized for sexualizing an entire generation of bespectacled women. More serious: other Internet users accuse him of having participated in the fetishization of the hijab, this veil worn on the head by many Muslim women.

During her short but well-known career in porn, Mia Khalifa has in fact appeared veiled on several occasions, playing the naïve believer who opens up to the pleasures of sex. Raised a Christian, the former actress has never apologized for taking advantage of a symbol of Islam, but she recently opened up about it in a TikTok video: “Where is your contempt for production companies that continue to produce content fetishized by the hijab? »

“A garment that resonates and excites a specific audience”

Whether European or North American, the porn industry has never stopped exploiting religious imagery. If Bang Bros, the company with which Mia Khalifa collaborated, has today suspended the production of films with veiled actresses, others have gladly taken up the torch again. In 2021 and 2022 the Hijab Hookup and Hijab MYLFS sites, dedicated exclusively to so-called ” hijabs porn »thus emerged. “Here, we help these beautiful girls go against their families’ conservative wishes and finally have the sexual experiences they’ve always dreamed of.”we can read about one of them.

His 70 or so videos present scenarios, each more dubious than the last. We follow the adventures of a young Muslim woman forced into marriage, fearful of disappointing her husband’s sexual expectations. Later, a foreign student traveling to the United States is greeted by a man who makes her believe that Americans touch their private parts to say hello to her. There is also the story of a housekeeper who steals from her boss to support her family in the Middle East and agrees to sleep with him after he threatens to sue her.

Each time the actresses wear a veil which they keep throughout sex. It also happens regularly that this garment is the target of the male actor’s ejaculation. Thomas Alexander, director of communications for the TeamSkeet and MYLF brands, which produce the Hijab Hookup and Hijab MYLFS videos, justifies himself with to miss : “We try to be the creators of people’s fantasies. This format is all about presenting a garment that resonates and excites a specific audience. »

Conquer the hidden bodies

” Hijab porn has nothing to do with sex, but rather with power, domination », believes Ibtisam M. Abujad. She is a researcher at Marquette University in the United States, she is the author of an article published in 2021 which retraces “colonial violence” of this type of pornography. Under the guise of entertainment and the satisfaction of a fantasy, these videos stigmatize the Muslim religion and reinforce discrimination, analyzes Ibtisam M. Abujad. She continues: “Women’s bodies are the vehicles of this domination. And this testifies to the historical function of Muslim women in the imagination. »

By staging antics between veiled women presented as Arabs and white North American men, the porn industry seeks to show what cannot be seen. And it perpetuates an old fantasy. Historical figure of French Algeria, General Thomas-Robert Bugeaud has already noted with regard to the Islamic veil that “The Arabs elude us because they hide their wives from our sight”subsequently encouraging Algerian women to do so “unveil”.

Historically perceived as chaste, but also sensual, the image of the belly dancer is never far away, the believing Arab woman has always been the target of extreme sexualization. And therefore of the desire to conquer, to westernize one’s body. “Pornography producers present the global North as the savior that can liberate Muslim women who are bound by their traditions or their relationships with their families”, observes Ibtisam M. Abujad. The male characters in the films Hijab Hookup and Hijab MYLFS are in fact mostly white, American, erected as heroes of a sexual liberation built from scratch.

As for the Arab and Muslim men, who also appear in these videos, they are systematically shown as violent, backward, ignorant and unable to see that they are made ” fly » their daughters or wives. According to Ibtisam M. Abujad, a geopolitical vendetta between the United States is taking place here and the Arab-Muslim world, whose recent common history was marked by the attacks of 11 September 2001 and the invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq. To TeamSkeet and MYLF, Thomas Alexander denies such symbolism and assures it ” porn is not a place of stigma ».

Shared actresses

Having become very popular in just a few years, the “hijab porn” it is today a great financial windfall that must be protected from criticism at all costs. An obsession also for many producers of pornographic films and an injunction for actresses, especially racialized women, perceived as close to the Muslim religion or Arabism.

Constantly invited to tour dressed in the hijab, the prostitute of Syrian origin Roxie Sinner has always refused these offers. She now posts on her Twitter profile about her, in capital letters: “NO HIJAB SCENE”. “Literally every fucking day people ask my agent for a hijab scene”, she confided in 2022 on the microphone of the “Plug Talk” podcast, proclaiming her respect for a religion close to hers. The actress did not respond to multiple requests for to miss.

Thomas Alexander assures that, “As in any work of fiction, the roles [de femmes musulmanes] they do not need to be approved by people of a specific ethnicity or religion”. On the Hijab Hookup and Hijab MYLFS sites, it seems that the actresses have chosen to perform “Arab women” AND “middle eastern milfs” they are most often white, Asian-American, Latino, or African-American.

Anissa Kate, a French actress whose only parent is Kabyle, appeared veiled on one occasion and still works with subsidiaries of Paper Street Media, the parent company of TeamSkeet and MYLF. Contacted in France via the Dorcel company, with which she is affiliated, she refused to comment on the matter. You must be told that the terrain is sensitive. American actress Nadia Ali, born in Pakistan and a Muslim by faith, left the profession in 2016 after being asked by a producer to shoot “a scene in which a white American dressed as Donald Trump fucks a Muslim woman”. She had worn hijab on video more than once, including for Hijab Hookup.

Growing demand, also in France

Since then, many fans have been calling for his return. The question of “hijab porn” expands as production increases. to miss traded to Mark (name has been changed), who is a big consumer. On his Twitter account he posts daily what he calls “wishlist” in which he lists the actresses he would like to see wearing the Islamic veil on video. “Overall, I like the taboo aspect of it […]those pure innocent girls who are corrupted or the innocent looking ones who show their wild side”he says.

Mark acknowledges, however, that the “hijab porn” vehicle of stereotypes and that this niche has found a sometimes not very benevolent audience. “I have many Indian Twitter followers and unfortunately when I look at their accounts there is a lot of very hateful content towards Muslims, even more hateful than racist content from whites. »

Even France, a country where there is still discussion about the use of the veil, consumes a lot “hijab porn”. In its statistical summary for the year 2022, the site Pornhub notes this research “veiled woman” increased by 213% in one year. The French industry has already distinguished itself in the past in the production of content of this kind, in particular through the Beurette Tour site which, until 2013, exhibited actresses made up as veiled Muslim women, forced accents and excessively made-up skins.

Although the racism of these productions has since been exposed, notably through a recent column by feminist intellectual Françoise Vergès on The worldthe growing success of “hijab porn” and the Islamophobia it transmits seems hard to contain.

Article co-written by Sabrine Benmoumene and Aurélien Defer