Bella Hadid questions lack of outrage over Muslim suffering

Palestinian-American supermodel Bella Hadid took to Instagram on Friday to question double standards among the public when reacting to the war in Ukraine, echoing criticisms made by Arab social media users against Western reactions to this war compared to similar events in the Middle East.

"Question yourself, question how quietly you moved around other injustices (...) If this is your first time realizing a war in some years, you're not of the world," read the text shared by Hadid on Instagram, which was written by Mustafa the Poet, a Muslim and Canadian poet.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere," Hadid wrote as a caption to the text.

The poem chosen by Hadid highlighted the differences in language and treatment between wars fought in Muslim countries and those fought in Europe.

"How many Muslim nations aflame?  Invasions by the West, merciless drone strikes, executions, internment camps in China?" 

The words echo the feelings of many social media users across the Middle East, who criticised the blatant differences in Western media coverage between Ukrainian and Syrian refugees, or the lack of international empathy for the victims of other armed invasions - such as the 2003 US invasion of Iraq or the ongoing occupation of Palestine.

While questioning this difference, Hadid also called for support to the Ukrainian people.

In a later post, published on Sunday, she shared a list of charities with her followers and encouraged them to donate to victims of the Russian invasion.

Source: The New Arab