Pathbreakers of Arab America—Nadine Ayoub

posted on: Apr 1, 2026

By: John Mason / Arab America Contributing Writer

This is our one-hundred and fifteenth in Arab America’s series on American pathbreakers of Arab descent. The series features personalities from various fields, including entertainment, business, sports, science, the arts, academia, journalism, and politics. Our 115th pathbreaker is Nadine Ayoub, a Palestinian model, businesswoman and a role model for young women everywhere. She represented Palestine in 2025 in the ‘Miss Universe’ contest, the first representative of Palestine at a Miss Universe contest. Going beyond the sheer aesthetics of a beauty contest, Ayoub has found a space to display the strength of her people alongside the suffering they have endured during the Israeli-Gaza war.

Multifaceted persona Nadine Ayoub has excelled in life activities, becoming a symbol of Palestinian beauty and so much more

Ayoub was born to Palestinian parents on August 23, 1998, in Michigan. Her mother was born in Hebron, her father in Nablus, and both parents were forced to flee from Jaffa and Ramle in 1948. Having met during their studies at An-Najah University, her parents were initially attracted to the U.S. to treat her epileptic brother. Shortly after Ayoub’s birth, the family moved back to Ramallah, where she was raised until the age of six. They then returned to the U.S., living between Michigan, Illinois, and Minnesota for three years.

During Nadine’s teenage years, her family moved to Canada, where she completed her secondary education. Ayoub studied English literature and psychology at the University of Western Ontario, receiving a B.A. During that period, she was also part of an exchange program with Birzeit University in Palestine. Upon graduating, she moved back to Ramallah, where she taught at the local Friends School, at the same time as she volunteered with organizations including United for Humanity and the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund.

Although Ayoub does not work directly in the fields she studied, her professional work has been described as “raising awareness about mental health issues and making knowledge on the matter more accessible to all.” Nadine is also a certified wellness and nutrition coach. In terms of her numerous movements between the Middle East and North America, she describes herself as a “Palestinian international citizen.” Presently she splits her time between Ramallah, Amman, and Dubai, while her parents live in Canada, and the rest of her family resides in the West Bank and Jordan.

Ayoub has been based in Dubai for the past few years. When she’s not modeling, she devotes her time to other ventures, including work as a coach and nutritionist, “helping clients achieve healthier lifestyles and a balanced sense of well-being.” She was married to Sharaf Barghouti, the son of Palestinian political leader Marwan Barghouti, who has been imprisoned in an Israeli jail since 2002, and whom Ayoub had described as “someone that Palestinians are proud of and a peace symbol.” While her marital status is unclear, Nadine named her son after the popular leader.

In entering the ‘Miss Earth’ 2022 contest representing Palestine, Nadine became a finalist, then progressing to the top four question-and-answer round “where she was asked about a particular issue she sought to correct and its corresponding solution.” Her response highlighted the “ignorance and selfishness of people,” citing that as the cause of environmental catastrophes which are correctable through an “educational campaign with governmental and non-governmental organizations.” The competition ended with Ayoub named ‘Miss Earth – Water,’ becoming the first Palestinian to hold the title.

Nominated as ‘Miss Palestine,’ Nadine was the first representative of Palestine at the Miss Universe competition in 2025, where she reached the top 30. Representatives from the ‘Miss Sweden’ organization had taken notice of Ayoub and helped her establish the ‘Miss Universe Palestine’ organization. In August 2025, the newly formed organization announced her as its entrant to Miss Universe 2025, marking Palestine’s debut in the annual contest. Welcoming Nadine to participation in the contest, the Miss Universe Organization noted its particular focus on “celebrating diversity, cultural exchange, and the empowerment of women.” However, her participation was delayed after the outbreak of the Gaza war.

The announcement of a Palestinian to the Miss Universe contest was met with significant international attention in the press, especially given its timing amid the Gaza war. Marni Rose McFall of ‘Newsweek’ deemed Ayoub’s participation significant because of her stated mission to “challenge perceptions of Palestinians and empower women and children” amid heavy casualties in the Israeli bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip.

A symbol of hope and pride, Nadine’s Miss Palestine—in her words–“represents every Palestinian woman and child whose strength the world needs to see”

Ayoub’s nomination instantly drew waves of congratulatory messages, expressions of pride, and excitement from Palestine, its diaspora and beyond. She described her participation as “a moment she wishes to use to highlight the heritage of her people,” framing her upcoming appearance as a “moment she looks forward to embracing to paint a different picture to the one usually associated with those indigenous to the Holy Land.”

On November 21, 2025, in Pak Kret, Thailand, Palestine saw itself represented at Miss Universe for the first time ever in its history. The 74th edition of the global beauty pageant saw Nadine Ayoub carry the colors of her homeland on one of the world’s most watched stages, in a debut many will be celebrating as a milestone in representation.

In her own words, Nadine captured the significance of the Miss Universe moment: “Today, I step onto the Miss Universe stage not just with a title — but with a truth…As Palestine endures heartbreak — especially in Gaza — I carry the voice of a people who refuse to be silenced. I represent every Palestinian woman and child whose strength the world needs to see. We are more than our suffering — we are resilience, hope, and the heartbeat of a homeland that lives on through us.”

We are reminded that Ayoub’s participation in the Miss Universe pageant came amid the then-and-still-ongoing 22-month-old war on Gaza, as humanitarian conditions in the enclave continued to deteriorate. The crisis is worsened by a lack of aid and repeated attacks on civilians attempting to access desperately needed supplies. The World Food Program had just sounded the alarm, “warning that starvation and malnutrition have reached their highest levels since the war began.”

Israel unleashed its offensive against Gaza to eradicate Hamas after militants from the group infiltrated southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in an unprecedented attack in which around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 others taken hostage.

Ayoub further used the Miss Universe platform to promote world solidarity around the plight of her people: “I think my point of view here and the voice that I want to share with the world is that Palestinians, especially women and children, and every single innocent Palestinian in Palestine and in the world because 50 percent of Palestinians are in the diaspora, we carry dreams within us and aspirations and we want to live and we have wants and needs and we want to reach our accomplishments just like everyone else in the world.”

A spinoff from the Miss Universe pageant itself alluded to the fact that the relationship between Palestine, where the Gaza war continues at a low grade, and Israel, is as fraught as ever. Captured in a Canary news source photo and headline, it depicts the relationship at a personal level: “Miss Universe–Miss Israel’s glare at Miss Palestine says it all.” The photo shows Miss Israel, Melanie Shiraz, standing one contestant away from Ayoub, “sending a ‘hostile look’ toward Ayoub, as the Palestinian woman waved to the audience — unsurprisingly, since she attacked Ayoub last month in a video on Shiraz’s Instagram for ‘distorting’ the Israeli image.”

Despite the personal animosity of one Miss Universe candidate towards another, the larger story is the critical one—Palestine was proudly represented by not only a beautiful woman, but by an accomplished woman who could be a role model for almost any young woman growing up anywhere in the world.

Sources:
-“Nadine Ayoub,” Wikipedia Series on Arab Americans, 2026
-“5 Facts About Nadine Ayoub, Palestine’s First-Ever Miss Universe Contestant
go get it !!,” Mille, 8/14/2025
-“First Miss Universe Palestine answers pageant questions,” Daily Tribune, 10/19/2025
-“Miss Universe: Miss Israel’s glare at Miss Palestine says it all,” Canary, 2025

John Mason, Ph.D., focuses on Arab culture, society, and history and is the author of LEFT-HANDED IN AN ISLAMIC WORLD: An Anthropologist’s Journey into the Middle East, New Academia Publishing, 2017 and of his new novel, WHISPERS FROM THE DESERT: Zaki, a Little Genie’s Tales of Good and Evil (2025), under his pen name, Yahia Al-Banna. He has taught at the University of Libya in Benghazi, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, and the American University in Cairo. John served with the United Nations in Tripoli, Libya, and consulted extensively on socioeconomic and political development for USAID and the World Bank in 65 countries.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Arab America. The reproduction of this article is permissible with proper credit to Arab America and the author.

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