{"id":265111,"date":"2026-01-30T09:01:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T09:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/265111\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T09:01:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T09:01:17","slug":"why-huda-kattan-is-facing-backlash-over-her-comments-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/265111\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Huda Kattan is facing backlash over her comments on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iraqi-American beauty mogul Huda Kattan<\/a> has denied accusations that she supports Iran<\/a>\u2019s ruling regime, saying she has been \u201cwrongly\u201d characterised after sharing anti-war content related to the unrest gripping the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The founder of Huda Beauty<\/a> came under fire after reposting a video showing a pro-government protester in Iran burning images of Reza Pahlavi<\/a>, the exiled son of the late Shah, who has sought to position himself as a potential leader amid weeks of deadly demonstrations.<\/p>\n

The post prompted an online backlash, with critics accusing Kattan of regime propaganda. Some even posted videos of themselves destroying or discarding Huda Beauty products. <\/p>\n

In a series of emotional video Instagram Stories, Kattan said claims that she was \u201cpro-regime\u201d were deeply upsetting.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople out there are angry with me because they think I support the regime of Iran or I am supporting anything that is hurting Iranian people,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s just wild. I can\u2019t believe anybody would think that I would support that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kattan said she understood why emotions were running high, acknowledging the pain felt by Iranians inside the country and in the diaspora.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know a lot of people all over the world are very, very upset,\u201d she said. \u201cA lot of Iranians who\u2019ve left Iran are very upset with what\u2019s going on in Iran, and I really truly feel for a lot of people. And I also feel for a lot of people in Iran who are going through things that I just can\u2019t imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said did not believe she was informed enough to take a public position on Iran\u2019s internal politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransparently, I\u2019m not pro-regime,\u201d Kattan said. \u201cBut I also don\u2019t know enough about the regime. I\u2019ve heard a lot of mixed things and I don\u2019t think I have the right to have an opinion on what\u2019s going on in Iran.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just my opinion. I don\u2019t believe that I have the right to have an opinion and to voice my opinion on something that is happening internally in a country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kattan also rejected comparisons being drawn online between Iran and other geopolitical conflicts, including what is happening in Palestine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are comparing it to Palestine and Israel. It\u2019s very different,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was a country oppressing another country. This is an internal issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her reluctance to call for regime change was shaped by her own experiences and family history, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs an Iraqi, we had internal issues. And we had America come save us,\u201d Kattan said. \u201cGuess what? Two-and-a-half decades later, the country is in shambles.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd America and Israel have never done anything good for the Middle East,\u201d she added. \u201cYou have to wonder why they want to go into any country in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kattan apologised if her original post had been misconstrued, but stopped short of endorsing calls for foreign intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want people to know I\u2019m not going to go on here saying, \u2018Yes, let\u2019s create regime change,\u2019 in a country where I have had that situation happen in my country. And it still hurts.” <\/p>\n

Her comments, however, drew sharp criticism from Moj Mahdara, the Iranian-American founder and chief executive of Beautycon, who accused her of minimising the scale of the violence in Iran.<\/p>\n

In a video posted on social media after Kattan\u2019s statement, Mahdara said she had previously asked Kattan to publicly support the Women, Life, Freedom movement<\/a>, but claimed she had declined.<\/p>\n

“You said you couldn\u2019t do anything political. And here you are today, covering up the dirty work of the Islamic Republic,” Mahdara said.<\/p>\n

But, Mahdara added, her response came from a place of personal hurt rather than animosity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love you,\u201d she said. \u201cBut please be honest. You just hate America and Israel more than you love Iranians. Just say it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her video, while acknowledging the suffering of Iranians under sanctions and repression, Kattan also said she was wary of solutions imposed from outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all want the best for people. We don\u2019t want to see people oppressed,\u201d she said. \u201cBut regime change by the hand of America is a scary thing. That scares me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have Afghan friends. I have Libyan friends,\u201d she added. \u201cI don\u2019t know if anybody is feeling grateful to America for what they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then said she would refrain from commenting further on Iran, calling the situation highly sensitive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to continue saying things about Iran because this is a situation that I think a lot of people need to be very careful of,” she said. \u201cI really do hope the best happens for the people there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iraqi-American beauty mogul Huda Kattan has denied accusations that she supports Iran\u2019s ruling regime, saying she has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,87,138938,43,48,2865,789,40,38,41,39,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-265111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-iran","10":"tag-lifestyle-team","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-palestine","13":"tag-standard","14":"tag-story","15":"tag-top-news","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-topnews","18":"tag-topstories","19":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}