Why are some Iranians boycotting Huda Beauty?

TikTok and Instagram have been flooded with videos of Iranian women smashing, dumping and even setting fire to their makeup products from Huda Beauty this week. 

The clips are part of a boycott call by some Iranians against the makeup and skincare giant after its founder Huda Kattan shared a video on Instagram Stories in which pro-government demonstrators in Tehran are seen burning images of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump and Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran's deposed shah.

Critics interpreted Kattan's reposting of the video as support for the Islamic Republic, and have accused the beauty mogul of parroting the government's narratives and ignoring its deadly crackdown on protests across the country, which she denies.

"Transparently I am not pro-regime, but I also don’t know enough about the regime," Kattan said in a series of video responses on Instagram Stories. "I've heard a lot of mixed things, and I don't think I have the right to have an opinion on what's going on."

She later drew comparisons between “internal issues” in Iran and her home country Iraq, which was invaded by the US in 2003. 

"People out there angry with me because they think I support the regime of Iran, or I am supporting anything that is hurting Iranian people. That's just wild," she said.

She apologised if her views were "misconstrued" into appearing to be support for the government, and doubled down on her opposition to calls for external intervention in the region, saying: "I'm not going to go on here saying, 'Yes, let's create regime change in a country' where I have had that situation happen in my country, and it still hurts'."

Kattan, who has been very vocal about her support for Palestinians amid Israel's genocide in Gaza also rejected comparisons between Iran's violent clampdown and Israel's war. 

"It's very different," she said. "There was a country oppressing another country. This is internal issues [sic].

"As an Iraqi, we had internal issues. And we had America come save us. Guess what? Two and a half decades later, the country is in shambles. America and Israel have never done anything good for the Middle East."

Online backlash

Huda’s comments sparked debate online, with some Iranian figures and social media users continuing to call for a boycott of her company, and many urging beauty retailers such as Sephora to stop stocking her products.

Prominent pro-Palestine Iranian creator Yeganeh dismissed Kattan's comments about hearing "mixed things" about the government. 

“You can be against US imperialism, you can be against bombs and wars, that can all exist with the acknowledgement that the regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran, has been torturing and unaliving their own citizens for decades," she said, employing a term for "killed" used by many TikTok users.

Middle East Eye contacted Huda Kattan for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication. 

Many others have praised Kattan for her stance.

Several social media users said she had the right to be wary of calling for regime change as an Iraqi-American who has seen the outcome of US intervention.

"It is WILD to me that people are trying to boycott her and her brand over her concerns about the USA and [Israel]. Everything is not black and white," said one TikTok user.