Hijab-wearing model steps down from L’Oreal Paris hair campaign over 2014 tweets
Fashion blogger-turned-L'Oreal Paris hair model Amena Khan backed out of a hair care campaign Monday, just a few days after announcing she was part of the Elvive product line ad campaign.
Khan wrote a statement on Twitter and Instagram early Monday that she was stepping down from the campaign because of a series of tweets from 2014 in which she criticized Israel. She said the tweets were detracting "from the positive and inclusive sentiment that (the campaign) set out to deliver."
Khan, who wears a hijab, had posted videos and Instagram posts about wearing a headscarf and representing women and girls all around the world as part of the inclusivity campaign. She was one of the first women who wear a hijab to be part of a major hair product ad campaign.
A L’Oréal Paris UK spokesperson addressed Khan's decision to step down and the 2014 tweets, which Khan has since deleted.
In a statement Monday the company said, "We have recently been made aware of a series of tweets posted in 2014 by Amena Khan, who was featured in a UK advertising campaign. We appreciate that Amena has since apologised for the content of these tweets and the offence they have caused. L’Oréal Paris is committed to tolerance and respect towards all people. We agree with her decision to step down from the campaign.”
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
