Yasmeena Ali (28) has a unique life story in the truest sense of the word: The young woman was born in Afghanistan in 1993 and grew up under the rule of the radical Islamist Taliban and in a strictly religious Muslim family, which she always “feared She says: “My family always wanted to scare me – with stories about God, hell and punishment,” says Ali.
Nevertheless, she broke out of the cage of her family and her former religion early on and pursued a path that could have cost her her life: After fleeing from the Middle East to Great Britain with her family, she gave up her religion and got married a Jewish erotic photographer, converted to Judaism and started a successful career as a porn star.
In 2020, Ali made headlines after her father and cousin were arrested over an alleged plot to kill her because her career path “shamed the family”. The fact that she left her former religion and married a Jew is also said to be a thorn in the side of Mohammed Patman and cousin Darya Khan Safi. Patman is said to have flown to Slovakia in August 2018 and “actively” searched for his daughter, where he also found the contract killer, who finally testified in court that he should have killed the porn star for $70,000. Patman and Safi will now be extradited to Slovakia.
In 2020, Ali made headlines after her father and cousin were arrested over an alleged plot to kill her because her career path “shamed the family”. The fact that she left her former religion and married a Jew is also said to be a thorn in the side of Mohammed Patman and cousin Darya Khan Safi. Patman is said to have flown to Slovakia in August 2018 and “actively” searched for his daughter, where he also found the contract killer, who finally testified in court that he should have killed the porn star for $70,000. Patman and Safi will now be extradited to Slovakia.
In a recent interview with the podcast “I hate Porn”, Yasmeena Ali not only shared her personal experiences and the rejection of her family, but also gave insights into the “hypocritical” nature of the Taliban against the background of the renewed takeover of power last summer radical Islamists. In the interview, Ali not only describes the Taliban as hypocrites, but also accuses them of being secret porn lovers – although, in some cases, not so secret. A “substantial” cache of porn was found on the computers of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after his death in 2011.
“I wouldn’t be surprised [wenn sie Pornos schauen]”, says Yasmeena Ali, and denounces that they still want to massively restrict women’s rights and monitor their sexuality. “Sexually repressed societies are kind of obsessed. If you look at where most viewers of pornography come from … most of them come from countries in the Middle East and India, for example,” says Ali.
Meanwhile, Ali told the podcast she feels oppressed in Afghanistan and has “seen people being beaten up” for refusing to obey Taliban orders. In Afghanistan, there are frequent cases of “domestic violence,” says Ali, who also campaigns for the rights of the LGBTQ community. She adds that gay men in Afghanistan may not acknowledge their true sexuality for fear of being murdered.
The adult actress also believes that because of her job and her success (her films have been viewed over nine million times on Pornhub and over 20,700 people follow her on Instagram) she is not only on her family’s radar, but also on that of the Taliban stands. She is certain that the Taliban are “certainly not the only Afghans” who have a problem with their unorthodox activities.
According to Yasmeena Ali, she is not only called “Afghanistan’s biggest porn star”, but the country’s “only” porn star. This fact underscores the need for more sexual freedom in Afghanistan and across the Middle East, she says. “They don’t want Afghanistan to be known for porn,” Ali says of the Afghan people. “They think they own my body and what I can do with my body and I have no right to show it.”
But that’s exactly what Ali is doing, and she intends to keep doing it.
