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Malaysian TikTok star ‘Tube Girl’ funds schooling for Palestinians: ‘you have to give back’, says influencer, real name Sabrina Bahsoon

  • Sabrina Bahsoon, known for her viral dances on the London Tube, is sponsoring schooling for Palestinian children living as refugees in Malaysia
  • While Malaysia is one of the few countries that formally recognises Palestinian nationhood, its approach to refugees has fallen under scrutiny in recent weeks

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Sabrina Bahsoon at the GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2023 in London on November 15. Photo: Shutterstock
A Kuala Lumpur-born internet sensation dubbed ‘Tube Girl’ for her viral TikTok dances on the London Underground system has leveraged her celebrity to fund schooling for Palestinian children living as refugees in Malaysia.
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Sabrina Bahsoon, 23, whose mother is Malaysian and father Lebanese-Sierra Leonean, shot to fame after videos of her carefree, wind-in-hair dances on London’s crowded Tube system went viral, racking up over 200 million views on TikTok as well as other social media platforms.

Her fame has brought opportunities to walk on fashion runways and garnered almost 800,000 followers on TikTok, with her breakout video in August viewed nearly 30 million times alone.

Now, guided by her father’s Lebanese heritage and Malaysia’s staunch support of the Palestinian cause, Sabrina has sponsored schooling for a group of children from the city’s small Palestinian refugee community in collaboration with refugee advocacy group, Geutanyoe Malaysia.

“My values from my father and my mum are you have to give back,” Sabrina told This Week in Asia during a trip to Kuala Lumpur. “Success is only given to those who will help others in return when they get there. So I want to do something.”

Malaysia is one of the countries that formally recognises Palestinian nationhood and has no formal ties with Israel.

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Since the October 7 assault by Hamas-led militants on Israel, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has defied American pressure to denounce Hamas, instead calling for an end to Israel’s retribution on Gaza and banning all Israeli-flagged ships from docking in Malaysia’s busy harbours.
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