But it spent the years from 1975 to 1990 locked in a bloody civil war, the aftershocks of which are reflected in the polarized political landscape of today. Lebanon, a country of just under 5 million, is one of the most liberal countries in the Middle East and has the most religious diversity of any nation in the region. "They're embarrassed I'm 'claiming' them-as if I had a choice. Her critics say she's shaming her country by appearing in porn with the Lebanese national anthem tattooed on her body, she says. She got the cross on her wrist two years ago, after the October 2012 Beirut bombing, in support of her father, "to show him, 'I'm on your side.'"īoth tattoos have generated controversy in Lebanon. Her father is a Lebanese Forces supporter, she says. On her right wrist is a tattoo of the Lebanese Forces Cross, the symbol of a Lebanese conservative Christian political party opposed to the Syrian Bashar Assad regime. On her left arm is a tattoo of the opening lines of Lebanese national anthem: كلنـا للوطـن للعـلى للعـلم (translation: All of us! For our Country, for our Flag and Glory!). But she isn't shy about repping her Lebanese heritage on social media, either. "I don't want us to be bullied by Syria or Israel, but I'm pretty indifferent towards it," she said in an interview with Newsweek. And in recent weeks, the debate over her career choice has expanded beyond a family disagreementtoa national conversation in Lebanon about the roles of pornography and the Internet.īy her own admission, Khalifa isn't very interested in Lebanese politics. Based in Miami, she has her own place at a time when one in four people her age live with their parents (who also live with their parents).įor Khalifa's Lebanese immigrant parents, pornography is not an acceptable way to make a living. in history from the University of Texas at El Paso. On average, every day, millions of people around the world see Khalifa's face-and other parts of her, as well.īorn in Beirut, her parents moved to Montgomery County in Maryland when she was around 10 years old. And Khalifa is not just any porn star-she was recently ranked the most popular actress on, the 71st most-visited website in the world, according to the web traffic analytics firm Alexa (for comparison, cnn.com ranks 73rd and ranks 97th). They're embarrassed, she says, because her job, which pays well enough to support her at the age of 21, is in porn. Except Khalifa's parents aren't proud of her. She's a daughter anyone could be proud of. She's educated, has a job that pays well and is successful in her field. By most metrics, 21-year-old Mia Khalifa (not her real name) is doing pretty well for herself.