Why I Made a Deodorant — and Why It's an Act of Solidarity

People are usually surprised when I tell them how Hurriyah started. They expect a story about a marketing gap or a business plan. The truth is simpler and a little more personal: I'm genuinely passionate about clean deodorant, and I couldn't stop thinking about a problem nobody seemed to be solving.

It started with two things I cared about

For years I'd been paying close attention to what I put on my body. Deodorant is something most of us apply every single day, directly onto our skin, often for our whole lives — and yet so many of the options on the shelf are full of ingredients I didn't want anywhere near me. The more I learned, the more I cared. Clean, aluminum-free deodorant that actually works became a small obsession of mine.

At the same time, I was deeply involved in the movement to boycott in support of Palestine. And the more I participated, the more I noticed something: we were boycotting effectively in some categories, but personal care was almost a blind spot. It wasn't that people didn't want to boycott there — it's that we didn't have effective alternatives. And a boycott only works when you can actually walk away to something better.

That realization is what brought my two worlds together. If we had a genuinely great alternative in personal care, we could finally boycott that category the way we already were boycotting others. I was passionate about deodorant. I was passionate about the cause. Why not unite them — my love of clean personal care, my activism, and my drive to build something — into one product that could actually make an impact?

That's how Hurriyah was born.

Solidarity is the heart of it — but it can't be the excuse

Here's the part I felt strongly about from day one: a "boycott brand" can't just be a boycott brand. If the product isn't excellent, asking people to switch is asking them to sacrifice — and sacrifice isn't a sustainable strategy. To genuinely deepen the boycotts, I needed to give people something they'd choose even if they knew nothing about our mission.

So I refused to cut corners on quality.

We didn't whip this up in a garage. Hurriyah is professionally formulated in a U.S. lab and produced on state-of-the-art filling lines by an American manufacturer that also produces deodorant for large, well-known brands. That means the product in your hand performs at a true store-bought level — the same caliber of manufacturing behind the names you already know, but made with our values and our standards.

And our standards are high. Every scent is formulated to be Target Clean and Sephora Clean — aluminum free, paraben free, phthalate free, cruelty free, and vegan — while still delivering all-day odor protection and a dry, comfortable underarm feel. Clean and effective. I wasn't willing to compromise on either.

Boycotting all the way down to the ingredients

Building a real boycott alternative meant looking past the label and into the supply chain. A lot of people don't realize that many major deodorant brands are owned by large conglomerates with strong ties to Israel — and that many of those brands source magnesium compounds, a common deodorant ingredient, from Israel. If the goal is to deepen the boycott, sourcing matters as much as ownership.

So we went the extra mile to source our magnesium hydroxide from the U.S., and we sought out Boycat Certification so you don't have to take our word for it. When you shop Hurriyah, you can shop with confidence that the product reflects the mission all the way down.

Good for your skin, good for the planet

The same care went into our packaging. Our tubes are EcoSmart tubes, made in the USA by the same manufacturer. They feel exactly like the normal plastic deodorant tubes you're used to — smooth and sturdy — but they've been engineered to break down in nature in less than ten years, and they're recyclable, too. No tradeoff in feel, a real difference in impact.

Three scents, designed to be loved

We launched with three scents I'm genuinely proud of:

• Woody Amber — bright amber and soft woods, warm and effortlessly unisex.
• Coastal Drift — a layered, unisex scent of ocean waves, musk, driftwood, and sweet citrus.
• Mountain Air — crisp, cool mountain air blended with fresh mountain greenery, unmistakably masculine.

Three different moods, the same clean formula and all-day protection underneath.

This is bigger than deodorant

Hurriyah is, in the end, a proof of concept. I want to show that Pro-Palestine entrepreneurs can thrive economically by building their own boycott brands — that we don't just have to opt out of products, we can build the better alternatives ourselves and opt in to something we believe in. Every tube is a small piece of that proof.

I built this from the things I care about most: clean products, my community, and a belief that we can vote with our values every single day. If that resonates with you, I'd love for you to try it — and to help us deepen the boycotts, together.

Shop the full collection at hurriyahco.com and follow along @hurriyah_co.