Amina Khalil. Image courtesy of Hyku
She created a social media storm earlier this year after sharing a powerful Instagram post addressing fans, media, and social commenters who have ever criticized her body. And tonight, on the Vogue Loves Fashion Avenue main stage, Amina Khalil revealed the response she got following her words has given her the “confidence to speak out more”.
The Egyptian actor opened up about her headline-making post while speaking with Emirati film director Ali F. Mostafa and MBC The Voice presenter Nardine Farag, as part of our 10-day calendar of events celebrating The Dubai Mall’s 10th anniversary. In a wide-reaching interview, where the two stars of Arab cinema opened up about their rise to success and shared behind-the-scenes anecdotes from their work, Farag addressed Khalil’s Instagram post, which she shared after the closing ceremony of the 2018 El Gouna Film Festival.
“Yes, I’m not perfect,” the star wrote at the time, alongside an image of herself from the red carpet. “Yes, I have love-handles or a muffin-top, or whatever it’s called nowadays. Yes, I don’t eat much the day I know I’ll be wearing a crop-top that night. And yes, I come home post crop-top and have sandwich gebna say7a or maybe even a Quarter Pounder! But you know what — so does everyone else. And those midnight snacks standing in the kitchen surrounded by girls doing the exact same thing, make me feel normal.”
Ali Mostafa, Amina Khalil, and Nardine Farag. Image courtesy of Hyku
The heartfelt post was inspired by an evening she spent in the company of friends, laughing and joking after a night spent at El Gouna, Khalil revealed on the Vogue Loves Fashion Avenue stage. “I wanted to share how beautiful this moment is, and say that this is so much more important than not eating to fit a certain stereotype,” the Sheikh Jackson actor said. “A lot of people were texting me [during El Gouna], saying things about my body, how I should look, how I need to fit into a certain criteria of body image.” However, as Khalil noted, she is an actor, not a model, with her work in front of the camera about her emotional range, not her figure. “[People] just have this image in their heads of what we should look like. I don’t really appreciate that because every woman is different, every woman is beautiful in her own way, and we should really accept each other.”
Mostafa agreed, noting he finds the trend of Internet trolling “all a bit weird”. “What is that going to do, what is it going to change? So why respond to them, why throw fuel on this weird fire?” noted the City of Life director. The silver screen duo also opened up about their future projects, why Mostafa takes style advice from his 10-year-old daughter, and the relationship between actors and directors during the varied discussion. See the full live stream below.
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