In early 2014, Khalifa and her then-husband posted several pornographic images to a popular NSFW subreddit on Reddit.[6] Khalifa entered the professional pornographic film industry in October 2014.[7] She came to widespread attention after the release of a scene from BangBros in which she wears a hijab during a threesome with Sean Lawless and Julianna Vega.[3][8] The scene brought Khalifa instant popularity, as well as criticism from writers and religious figures, and led to her parents publicly disowning her.[3][9] The scene's producer said "We weren't trying to exploit [Khalifa's ethnicity]. We wanted to embrace it. No one could have anticipated the negativity surrounding it."[3] Alex Hawkins, Vice President of Marketing for xHamster, said "The outrage it caused in the Arab world ended up being a bit of a 'Streisand effect'. Suddenly, everyone was searching for her. The effort to censor her only made her more ubiquitous."[3] With more than 1.5 million views, the 22-year-old Khalifa became the most searched-for performer on the adult video sharing website Pornhub.[10] On December 28 that year, Pornhub revealed that she was the No. 1 ranked performer on their website."[11]She received online death threats after she ranked No. 1 on Pornhub, including a manipulated image of an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant executioner preparing to behead her, and a message warning her that she would go to Hell, to which she replied "I've been meaning to get a little tan recently."[12] Lebanese newspapers wrote articles critical of Khalifa, which she considered trivial due to other events in the region.[13]
