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." Lebanese newspapers wrote articles critical of Khalifa, which she considered trivial due to other events in the region. She had received online death threats after she ranked No. On December 28 that year, Pornhub revealed that she was the No. The effort to censor her only made her more ubiquitous." 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. Suddenly, everyone was searching for her. 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'. The scene brought Khalifa instant popularity, as well as criticism from writers and religious figures, and led to her parents publicly disowning her. 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.
Khalifa entered the professional pornographic film industry in October 2014. She supported herself while there by working as a bartender, model, and "briefcase girl" on a local Deal or No Deal-esque Spanish game show. She attended Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Virginia, and later graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a BA in History. She has said she was bullied at school for being "the darkest and weirdest girl there," which intensified after the September 11 attacks. After moving to the United States, her family lived in Montgomery County, Maryland, where she played lacrosse in high school. She moved with her family to the United States in 2001, leaving their home in the wake of the South Lebanon conflict. Born in Lebanon and raised Catholic in what she describes as a "very conservative" home, Khalifa attended a French-language private school in Beirut, where she also learned to speak English.