Supermodel Bella Hadid suffered severe backlash online after she posted a photo on her Instagram account that allegedly disrespected Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
#BellaHadidIsRacist went viral yesterday online after Bella posted a photo on her Instagram story of her shoe facing three airplanes, two being Saudi and UAE.
The angle of the photo suggested that Bella was kicking the flags on the plane tails and disrespecting the kalma on the Saudi one in particular. The photo quickly picked up on Twitter and Muslims began tweeting out their fury – with many throwing away their Dior products in protest (Bella endorses the multi-millionaire company).
#BellaHadidIsRacist Dior to the trash because Bella Modal for your products🗑🥾 pic.twitter.com/T1LQDcefKT
— noura_alfawzan (@noura_fawzan) June 17, 2019
Letter to the owners of the brands stop working with Bella 🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫🚫 #BellaHadidIsRacist pic.twitter.com/6zvQUnE8dr
— جُمان (@joj_j3j) June 17, 2019
I stop buying Dior products #BellaHadidIsRacist pic.twitter.com/8p44PLsHos
— خالد (@KSAT2030) June 17, 2019
@bellahadid We loved you bella, but your actions and your bad and false statements recently increased! What have we done to you? Unfortunately, the badness that has appeared in you is now apparent, so we no longer love you at all #bella #bellahadid
— Tata (@Tata94052589) June 18, 2019
#BellaHadid #BellaHadidIsRacist shame on you bella. You are so stupid and ignorant. Stay away from politics. It is for educated and grown ups ppl. 🇸🇦🇸🇦🇸🇦🇸🇦🇦🇪🇦🇪🇦🇪🇦🇪
— fno (@fno22657512) June 18, 2019
Stop working with #BellaHadid please otherwise we will boycott
— April.designs0 (@AprilDesigns0) June 18, 2019
Here’s the original photo:
After all the backlash, Bella posted a lengthy apology on Instagram and Twitter, relaying that she didn’t mean to hurt anyone’s sentiments.
— Bella Hadid (@bellahadid) June 17, 2019
Bella also wrote her apology in Arabic, and pleaded to the Muslim community; “I would never want my posts or platform to be used for hate against anyone, especially those of my own beautiful and powerful heritage.”
— Bella Hadid (@bellahadid) June 17, 2019
“I love and care so much about the Muslim and Arab side of my family as well as my brothers and sisters throughout the world.”
this was an honest mistake on an early morning… never, ever would I intentionally try to offend anyone like that. I am so sorry ..❤️
— Bella Hadid (@bellahadid) June 17, 2019