Muslim beauty blogger refuses award because of Gal Gadot

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Muslim beauty blogger Amani Al-Khatahtbeh is rejecting a Revlon award because Gal Gadot is the brand ambassador.

Al-Khatahtbeh, the founder of MuslimGirl.com, was given the Changemaker Award from Revlon’s new ‘LiveBoldly’ campaign, an initiative to “inspire women to express themselves with passion, optimism, strength and style.”

However, Al-Khatahtbeh rejected the award and took to Instagram to explain her reasons behind it.

“I cannot accept this award from Revlon with Gal Gadot as the ambassador,” Al-Khatahtbeh wrote in a post.

“Her vocal support of the Israeli Defense Forces’ action in Palestine goes against MuslimGirl.com’s morals and values,” Al-Khatahtbeh continued. “I can’t, in good conscience, accept this award from the brand and celebrate Gal’s ambassadorship after the IDF imprisoned a 16-year-old girl named Ahed Tamimi last month, an activist who is currently still incarcerated. I think we are in a moment where we must persist that women’s empowerment includes ALL women. From the bottom of my heart, I feel I would not embody the meaning of the Changemaker Award if I were to accept it in these circumstances.”

This is why I couldn’t accept @revlon’s Changemaker Award celebrating their new #liveboldy campaign featuring @gal_gadot. It means so much to me when @muslimgirl’s work is recognized and elevated in spaces from which we’ve been traditionally excluded. But that’s what makes it even more important at this moment to elevate and stand up for ALL women and girls. This shouldn’t have to be said, but we can’t accept role models that support the oppression of women and girls in other parts of the world. Especially after we just celebrated MLK Jr. and as we approach the one year anniversary of the Women’s March, we all have an URGENT obligation to talk back, speak our truths, and insist on the right side of history. The personal is political — yes, even, and ESPECIALLY, when it comes to beauty — and I don’t know about you, but my feminism is inclusive of ALL women and nothing less. That’s what being a changemaker means to me.

A post shared by Amani (@amani) on Jan 16, 2018 at 8:29am PST

Al-Khatahtbeh captioned her post, “It means so much to me when Muslim Girl’s work is recognised and elevated in spaces from which we’ve been traditionally excluded. But that’s what makes it even more important at this moment to elevate and stand up for ALL women and girls. This shouldn’t have to be said, but we can’t accept role models that support the oppression of women and girls in other parts of the world. Especially after we just celebrated MLK Jr. and as we approach the one year anniversary of the Women’s March, we all have an URGENT obligation to talk back, speak our truths, and insist on the right side of history. The personal is political — yes, even, and ESPECIALLY, when it comes to beauty — and I don’t know about you, but my feminism is inclusive of ALL women and nothing less.”

“That’s what being a changemaker means to me,” she concluded.

Gal Gadot, an Israeli model and actress, was an IDF combat trainer for two years. Gadot has been vocally pro-IDF in the past and stirred controversy when she took to Facebook to send “love and prayers” to those involved in the most recent Israel-Gaza conflict that left more than 1,000 Palestinians dead.

Al-Khatahtbeh told Yahoo Style, “Gal is the face of Wonder Woman, feminism, and empowerment. And yet, she doesn’t stand for the empowerment of everyone and she’s very vocal on matters that disproportionately oppress women and children. It doesn’t add up.”

Earlier in the year, Gadot sparked another political outrage when she wore a gown by Lebanese designer Elie Saab to the National Board of Review gala.

Lebanese people took to social media to call Saab “shameful” for dressing the Israeli actress.

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