Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
BRITISH MODEL AMENA Khan, who had been chosen by L’Oreal to appear in an advertising campaign, has pulled out over accusations she made ‘anti-Israeli’ comments in a series of old tweets.
The French cosmetics giant last week selected her to be the first woman in a hijab for a mainstream shampoo campaign.
Khan’s messages, posted on Twitter in 2014, have since been deleted.
“I deeply regret the content of the tweets I made in 2014, and sincerely apologise for the upset and hurt that they have caused,” she said on social media yesterday.
L’Oreal group, contacted by AFP, said it “approved” her decision.
“We appreciate the fact that Amena has apologised for the content of her tweets and for the reactions they may have aroused,” it said.
It is not the first time a L’Oreal advertising campaign to promote diversity has foundered because of controversial social media comments by a model.
Last summer the group dropped British black transgender model Munroe Bergdorf over Facebook comments she made accusing all whites of racial violence.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
If she was going to be advertising shampoo how were we to see the condition or the effect of the shampoo on her hair while she wore a hijab.
@bings: she explains it in the ad, saw it last night and thought the same thing!
@GClare: Didn’t see the add
@bings: Careful now. Deborah will be along soon to completely miss the point and tell you that you have no right to look at her hair.
@bings: It’s like a nail polish company getting their models to wear gloves!
@bings: First thought I was trying not to be racist but I was also thinking how stupid.
So here is also the problem am I agreeing with something or someone because I am worried that I might appear racist even if what I am agreeing with i think is stupid?
@bings: That should be the only problem here. He opinions shouldn’t be an issue. Are models not allowed to have any opinion on anything?
@Steve Austin: Who is Deborah?
She probably said something factual about Israel, and they really don’t like when you do that.
@Martin Byrne: she could have said something factual ,like the murder of Christians in Muslim countries
@Martin Byrne: calling Israel murderers while praising Hamas? Is not a balanced or truthful statement of fact.
@Minionator: Where did she praise Hamas? She mentioned them but she certainly didn’t praise them in any way. Your statement is what is now referred to as fake news and worst still, possibly calumny.
@Johnny Bellew: yeah, I didn’t see the praise for Hamas but to be fair that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. All we see are four tweets
@Minionator: No praise for Hamas. She did wish that Israel would be ‘defeated’, which is pretty ambiguous and has somewhat sinister undertones, but I’m not sure it’s a statement to be hung, drawn and quartered over.
@Malachi: She said Israel is an illegal state. It’s no more illegal than any state created by the mandate system so presumably she also thinks Jordan, Syria, Iraq et al are illegal… unless its that she only has a problem with Jewish states created through that system.
@Mick Johnson: I highly doubt she was making any well thought out political point in those tweets, but calling Israel an “illegal state” could reasonably be interpreted as a legal criticism of Israeli expansionism and land grabbing.
In fairness, Israel as a state has a troubled legal history as many states in that part of the world do. I don’t think calling Israel ‘illegal’ is suspicious as praying for its defeat, the latter is much more suspicious. One is a criticism, the other is a heavenly desire.
@Robert Harris: I think you’ll find there are more Muslims dying from Christian bombs than the other way around
L’Oreal normalizing an instrument of oppression is the bigger story here.
@Griff: The veil? I think you need a new dictionary that will explain oppression to you.
@Johnny Bellew: Look up what the word hijab means in Arabic and why it’s worn.
@Griff: Look up oppression.
@Griff: In Islam it’s considered “commendable” for both men and women to cover their head This is why religious men wear the taqiyah (skull cap) and women wear the hijab. Unlike the Christian Bible where only women are ordered to to cover their head.
@Francis Devenney: Comparisons with the Bible aren’t valid because of the status of both books in each religion. Do a bit of research. Regardless Christian women have never been beaten back into a burning building to their deaths by men because these women didn’t have their head covered . Unlike some poor Muslim women.
@Catherine Sims: You seem to be forgetting the 5-9 million women burned and hanged by the Christians in Europe because they didn’t conform or the thousands of Catholics killed by Protestants in the Suppression in England or the Women being Burned in Africa by Christian militias or the Actions of the Christian militias in Lebanon. Not forgetting our own Bridget Cleary and Petronella of Meath.
a ‘model’? Wow, what she thinks and says must be really important….
@Kieran Magennis: By the same rationale. Who gives a shit about your Journal comment?
@Paraic McDonagh: The subtle difference being….my opinion was not the subject of a news report (well not yet anyhow….but here’s hoping because I just know that would brighten up your day!)
@Paraic McDonagh: are you saying Paraic is a model?
@Mark: *Kieren (wow I blew that)
@Kieran Magennis: There’s no subtle difference. When she made her comments, it wasn’t a news story. She was just commenting, in the same way that you’re just commenting. What difference does it make whether she’s a model? Are models not allowed to comment? You seem to be saying that a model’s point of view is not relevant. Yet as you point out, her comments became newsworthy. Whereas yours will not.
Companies will do anything for marketing and publicity and to stand out – why on earth would a shampoo company use a model when you cannot see her hair? There is no point in this whatsoever.
What’s next a woman in a balaclava advertising make up.
Typical Islamic apologist AFP had to put in “alleged” into the headline. There is nothing alleged about it. All the tweets are there to see
@Tommy Hawk:
Nothing wrong with her tweets, she legitimately criticised the actions of Israel towards Palestine.
@Tommy Hawk: The tweets are factual. Nothing wrong with the content. We must remember in 2014 2100 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli incursion and of that number 500 children were killed and 6 Israelis died. If we look at how incensed the western world was when the Paris ISIS attacks happened we can begin to understand that these actions by Israel incensed the Arab world in equal measure.
@Gary Caffrey:
‘It’s gods will that Israel will be destroyed’ isn’t legitimate criticism.
@Tommy Hawk: the tweets are not as bad as I was expecting. That dope Monroe bergdorf’s were worse
@Thought for Food:
At no point in the tweets linked in this article does she say this. She said God willing they will be defeated. Not exactly the same thing!!
@Gary Caffrey:
At the time of her tweet, Hamas’ Charter called for the complete eradication of Israel and the founding of a greater Islamic Palestinian state encompassing what is now Palestine and Israel. The Palestinian National Covenant also makes similar statements despite promises to reform.
I think it’s pretty obvious from this what a Palestinian ‘victory’ would look like. Therefore my point remains accurate.
@saoirse janneau: yawn
@Thought for Food: no.. your point is not accurate. You constructed the answer to suit your narrative. What she says and what you say hamas says are two different things. You said she said something she didn’t say…. therefore you are inaccurate.
@Thought for Food: That was a pretty shameless misrepresentation of what she said. The tweets themselves weren’t great in the first place, no need to blatantly lie about them.
@Thought for Food: To elaborate on why you’re misrepresenting her, ‘inshallah’ is an arabic term that roughly means “God willing”; i.e. if God wants it to happen, it will. It’s used as we use “hopefully”. That is not the same as saying “It is God’s will that Israel is destroyed”. Subtle, but significant difference.
Furthermore, she did not say she wants Israel’s destruction. She said she wants the defeat of Israel; the meaning of this is pretty unclear but you have no basis to paraphrase it as ‘destruction’. It could conceivably be that she wanted the killing of Palestinians in that conflict to stop by a military defeat of the IDF, she may also have been saying that she wants the total annihilation of the State of Israel; as a statement, it’s as vague as it gets. You are just injecting your slant onto her tweet.
Unless it was anti semetic, there should be no problem criticising Israeli policies
@gjpb: it was anti Semitic. Lefties just like using the phrase anti Israel because it’s good spin
@Tommy Hawk: what exactly was anti Semitic that she said? I’ve read the tweets nothing I can see.
@Tommy Hawk: This is where I struggle. I see criticism of the State of Israel approach to dealing with Palestinian, but I don’t see any attack of Judaism.
What am I missing that makes it anti-Semitic as oppose to criticising Israel’s heavy handed approach with Palestine?
@TonySuperSaints:
You don’t think that ‘its gods will that Israel will be destroyed’ is anti-Semitic?
@Tommy Hawk: critising Israel is anti semetic, a black person racism, a woman misogyny etc etc. I get it now. Critising a person or state is critising everything about their entire race, gender of religion also. Better be quiet.. got it
@TonySuperSaints: Ah now, these days people don’t need proof to throw out wild accusations. They just need prejudice.
@Thought for Food: that’s twice now you have blatantly lied and purposely misquoted in quotations what she actually said. TJ is riddled with ye agenda driven clowns
@Derek:
I think you need to get your eyes checked Derek. It’s clearly marked that I’m paraphrasing, not directly quoting.
As for lying, nothing that I have said is a lie. Unlike you I’m looking at the full picture and the context of the period when these tweets were made.
She prayed for Palestinian victory. At the time, the stated goals of the Palestinian organisations fighting Israel were the total destruction of the Israeli state and the formation of a greater Islamic Palestine encompassing both regions. Therefore praying for Palestinian victory was praying for the eradication of Israel.
So where have I lied?
@Thought for Food: “defeat also awaits the former, it’s only a matter of time” #SaveGaza. Context is a tweet sent during July ’14, when the whole world watched on as Israel bombed the living jasus of of Gaza for about 6 weeks. Palestinian was not at war with Israel, Hamas firing tiny rocket the size of large fireworks dinting walls in Israel isn’t going to defeat anything. She doesn’t mention Hamas or the eradication of Israel. What the vast majority of Muslims want is the end to the Zionist mentality and overly aggressive actions of the Israeli state, not its citizens. It’s continued oppression and actions towards the West Bank and Gaza is why it has the worst violation of UN Human rights yet untouchable thanks to the US. Only monsters were on the side of Israel during that slaughter.
@Derek: would that be the third intifada you’re talking about?
If you want to know who controls You, ask who you cannot criticise
@Marty Gormley: Africa???
We have short memories, but something was nagging so I looked it up.
Turns out these tweets were made in the middle of the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, which took a couple of thousand lives on the Palestinian side, including women and children.
How many is, as usual, debated, but she said what she said in that context.
@Mick Tobin:
That doesn’t excuse saying that it’s gods will for an entire nation to be destroyed.
Did you want the entire US wiped off the map for their actions in Iraq or all of Russia wiped off the map for their actions in the Ukraine?
@Thought for Food: That tweet is about defeat in the 2014 Gaza conflict.
@Mick Tobin:
That’s a lot of context that you’ve just made up to explain it away. She doesn’t mention the 2014 conflict in that tweet.
@Thought for Food: I’m not making it up, it’s just logical reasoning. What else could it be about? It was the single biggest Israel news story during the Summer of 2014. It would simply be very unlikely that she would not be referring to the Gaza conflict.
@Mick Tobin:
Then do tell us what a Palestinian victory would have looked like in the Gaza conflict in your eyes. Please don’t forget to mention what the Hamas and Palestinian National charters all said about Israel and their overall goal at the time.
@Thought for Food: It’s not so hard is it? For Israel to be forced out of Gaza. This is what Hamas claimed happened, as they as well as the Israeli side both claimed victory after the cessation of hostilities.
You’re referring to the Hamas refusal to recognize Israel, but that was not in their definition of victory in the 2014 conflict. As for the Palestinian National charters, which was not party to this conflict, the recognition of Israel’s right to exist has been in place following the Oslo accords. Arafat confirmed this in 1998.
@Mick Tobin: he just another Muslim bashing commenter who will hop any story to take a swipe at them while blindly and purposely ignoring the current events at the time which was on everyone’s mind. He’s pushing his own narrative and has twisted her words and intentions repeatedly in numerous comments as he tries paint her as wishing death on the entire population of Israel and there’s no point in engaging with that mentality. Clearly got too much time on his hands
@Thought for Food: funny you telling everyone else they’re putting a lot of context into her tweet while you ignore the fact her combined tweets were about the devastation being dealt to Gaza at the time, it was on every media outlet day and night and she was showing support for the for those peoples struggle. You have repeatedly put words on her mouth and changed the narrative to suit your own agenda and your here telling everyone else they lie and are taking her tweet out of context. Worried you’ll be out of a job soon when the embassy closes?
For people saying that she was being anti-semitic and that they are trying to lessen it by calling it anti-Israeli, she doesn’t mention a single thing about Jewish people (either the religion or the ethnicity). All her comments are about the actions of Israel the country. Now you can of course you can disagree with her comments, or think that they are unfair but they aren’t in the least bit anti-semitic.
@The Bob: true, however calling / hoping for the ‘defeat’ of israel; and to a lesser extent calling it an illegal country – might be a bit controversial for a shampoo and could adversely impact sales to Jewish people.
@mike scott: Oh I perfectly understand why L’Oreal wouldn’t want to have her as a spokesperson, just saying that nothing she said was anti-semitic as some other commenters were saying, here and elsewhere.
@The Bob:
She said it’s gods will that Israel will be destroyed. Seems pretty damn anti-Semitic to me.
@Thought for Food: She doesn’t say that it’s gods will that Israel is destroyed. (unless she said this elsewhere. I’m only going off the comments above). She says that it is gods will that they be defeated. Israel was/is fighting a war against Palestine and she hopes that they don’t win.
@The Bob:
So what was the victory criteria for Hamas at that time going by their charter?
The total destruction of Israel and the formation of a greater Islamic Palestine. Victory in their eyes at that time was Israel’s destruction, therefore praying for Palestinian victory was praying for the eradication of Israel.
It’s not rocket science.
Cannot for the life of me understand why someone would wear a hijab to virtue-signal their “modesty” while wearing such an unholy amount of make-up, but she isn’t the only woman to do it by a long way.
The anti Catholic stuff on Irish Times comments should get more attention from employers and authorities.
Long live Israel! Where else should the Jewish people call home? Everyone else has a country.
Plenty of Arab countries around to move to if they don’t like it.
@Kevin Slater: No one has a problem with Israel, or its right to exist. People are thick with the illegal settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
And how if Hamas attack and kill a 6 Israeli civilians, Israel respond by killing over 2,000 Palestinians civilians that include heavy amounts of women and children in their pursuit of getting maybe a hundred Hamas soldiers.
@Havid Dickey: Pardon me, my numbers are off it was just under 1,500 Palestinian civilians killed.
But what did she say….?
@Lynda Murphy: this bit of fish is good enough for Jehovah.
@Etherman: halibut
@Etherman:
But all I said was ‘Jehovah’!
@Lynda Murphy:
The usual anti-Israel rhetoric, the kind of stuff you find on an Irish Times opinion piece.
She did the right thing in voluntarily leaving the campaign. Its good that she has matured enough to see that hate speech is harmful.
I bet she regrets it,I all Taqqiyya.
oh dear what a surprise. did you hear that the PC anti jewish left are coming out with a new ad for makeup for an isis women in a burka. The left has lost their minds, they are as crazy as the rightwing Trump christians in the US.
For L’Oréal to lose one model is bad, but losing 2 just looks like carelessness: L’Oreal drops its first trans model over controversial comments on racism http://jrnl.ie/3577915
Crazy old world. How do you put make up on a hijab.
Yeh but Cheryl Cole can punch the head off a woman in a nightclub toilet.
@GizmoIrl: She obviously wasn’t worth it.
Footballers and models should stay off Twitter and keep their opinions to themselves.
Jesus,ya cant say anything about Israel..in fact dont mention jesus
@Declan burke: ISISrael standing tall with ISIS to destroy the Middle East……..**** Israel…hows that ?
@Declan burke: the man of the hour Declan……telling the US to invade Iraq…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN1HOVLf4C0&t=122s word for word it is nearly exactly what BUSH AND BLAIR told the world…….so basically Israel wanted war without fighting it but using US/British cannon fodder……..disgusting !!
She obviously thought “it wasn’t worth it.” Amean a khan’t say fairer than that…
@Paul Jennings: …hijab? What’s she doing under a lorry mounted crane? I find this story very confusing..
suppressed Barbie was a good laugh last year too.
It is called free speech……Israel carries out mass murder without any costs ……….Israel in my opinion is the number one state sponsor of terrorism on the planet…..USS Liberty, Lavon Affair……call me whatever you choose but the evidence speaks for itself !!
2014 was when Israel was last bombing the crap out of the population in the Gaza ghetto. It is quite valid to criticise Israeli state policy. It is alltogether another matter to criticise Jews per se. Unfortunately Israel complicates the debate by stating that Israel is a ‘Jewish State’. I.e not a secular state to be inclusive of Christians, Muslims and others. Any criticism of the State of Israel, no matter how valid, is to invite a massive PR campaign from Zionists. Israel and their US Zionist allies totally controls the media coverage of the Middle East.
Who cares?
The more important point is, the damming control that Israel/elite Jews, force on the rest of the world. Then use the anti semitic blanket to cover their very questionable actions. People need to stand up and call them to account for their predatory and sneeky controlling behaviour.
Time to boycott L’Oréal
have your say