Iran strikes send VIP Dubai influencers ‘back to reality’

A passenger reacts after disembarking from a Emirates flight coming from Dubai at Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport on 4 March 2026. Thousands of flights have been delayed or cancelled in the biggest disruption to global air transport since the Covid pandemic as airlines suspend services to the Middle East following the US and Israeli attacks on Iran. (Photo by Izhar KHAN / AFP) Since early on Saturday, foreigners in the United Arab Emirates have been sharing videos of plumes of smoke rising above the skyscrapers.

They have also been expressing their shock that the usual haven of stability was under attack. “OMG!” Israeli wellness influencer Hofit Golan repeatedly exclaims in a video that shows a building near her apartment on fire. British content creator Will Bailey was updating hisTikTokfollowers by filming the trails of smoke left by missiles and interceptor rockets inDubai’sskyline.

“That was metres away from us,” he says in a video filmed near the Fairmont Hotel, which was hit by a strike on Saturday. Other influencers were less composed. France’s Maeva Ghennam waved her passport around and told viewers she “screamed hysterically” when she heard a strike.

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“France, protect us!” said Ghennam, who rose to fame via reality television. Some have criticised the “total disconnect” of the “bling-bling world” from the geopolitical realities of the Middle East. “We’re seeing a ‘back-to-reality’ moment for influencers who settled” in Dubai, according to journalist Emma Ferey.

Her 2024 novelEmiragechronicles the Emirati capital’s influencer scene. According to Ferey, in this “under-informed world… everything seems easy”. Dubai has, in recent years, become a hive of influencers, entrepreneurs and millionaires. They have been drawn by the city’s business-friendly and income-tax-free environment as well as the lavish lifestyles on offer.

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