Earlier this week we saw Amena Khan, Muslim youtuber and  influencer, grace the latest L’Oreal hair campaign alongside other influencers. The campaign saw a range of influencers in the advert including model Neelam Gill, Dougie Pointer from McFly, and blogger Megan Ellaby. Amena Khan stars in the campaign, talking about how even though she wears a hijab, she still cares about looking after her hair.

The campaign is has been reported about in several outlets and hailed as “Revolutionary”, “Historic”, “Game Changing”, “barrier-breaking” and Amena has been hailed for “Breaking Stereotypes.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeG2f_1nfLV/?hl=en&taken-by=amenaofficial

That was until today when Amena Khan realised a statement on her social media platforms announcing she would be stepping down from the campaign following the surfacing of tweets from 2014 about Israel.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BeQGp4ZnuuD/?hl=en&taken-by=amenaofficial

100’s of followers and critics have commented on the situation including prominent influencer Dina Tokio:

“I don’t think u should step down! You can’t have an opinion now?? Those tweets or opinions did NOT make you ‘anti Semitic’ whatsoever. You are a well articulated woman and anyone with sense can see that . It’s funny I wonder if your tweets were the opposite opinion would you have been targeted like this?! it’s actually shit that you’ve been made to feel like this from whatever pressures you’ve faced, we support you ???????? stand for what is moral and right ✌???? peace and hugs your way ✌????”

– Dina Tokio, Instagram comment

Many have shown solidarity and support in Amena’s original tweets, others have shown disappointment in her apology and there have also been comments about L’Oreal and their integrity in representing minorities.

https://twitter.com/AnotherNerd4/status/955526019460542464

https://twitter.com/frenchsaiai/status/955494786282205186

This situation vindicates why I don't share strong political views online https://t.co/YYSdkJyHnj

— مارية (@mryhdrr) January 22, 2018

https://twitter.com/mariyahzaman/status/955475399420600320

https://twitter.com/King_Che_W/status/955466518665596929

https://twitter.com/Maaiysa/status/955465954384859136

We have to ask why it's OK for us to have spokeswomen like @galgadot for @revlon, who use their platform to express support for Israel's military against Palestinian women, while we take down spokeswomen like Amena for their vocal support of Palestinian women, children, & people.

— AMANI (@AmaniUniverse) January 22, 2018

https://twitter.com/Whytrustme/status/955463228368343041

https://twitter.com/SnowDesi/status/955460258046119941

A British Muslim woman has been hounded out from an ad campaign for being critical of Israel. So criticising countries is racist now?

Where are those defenders of free speech now? 🙄https://t.co/7Vglcb7nDs

— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) January 22, 2018

https://twitter.com/eemanabbasi/status/955467209500975110

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