This woman may be one of the most unforunate people in the world right now because her first name is Isis! Surprised? Isis Anchalee, a San Francisco-based engineer was equally surprised when Facebook disabled her account yesterday, because her first name matches the initials of the terror group, Islamic State, which took responsibility for the Paris attacks.
The woman was left with no choice but to tweet Facebook (what an irony) about what they did to her. “Why would you disable my personal account? MY REAL NAME IS ISIS ANCHALEE /facepalm,” she tweeted to Facebook.
@facebook why would you disable my personal account? MY REAL NAME IS ISIS ANCHALEE /facepalm
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 16, 2015
@facebook ………. why? pic.twitter.com/F6BPvdRnep
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 16, 2015
She then sent Facebook a screen shot of her password to prove that Isis was the name given to her at birth.
Facebook thinks I’m a terrorist. Apparently sending them a screenshot of my passport is not good enough for them to reopen my account.
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 17, 2015
It was only after the third time she tweeted to them that Facebook responded by rectifying the issue.
Third time sending in my information is the charm I guess. I’m back in 🙂 pic.twitter.com/m0demGZitw
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 17, 2015
A Facebook researcher, Omid Farivar, tweeted to Anchalee publicly to apologise eight hours after her initial complaint on Tuesday. “Isis, sorry about this. I don’t know what happened. I’ve reported it to the right people and we’re working on fixing it.”
@isisAnchalee Isis, sorry about this. I don’t know what happened. I’ve reported it to the right people and we’re working on fixing it.
— omid farivar (@bromid) November 17, 2015
Facebook also recently joined the war against ISIS and we guess Anchalee was one of it’s earliest casualties.
Just a day before this episode, Isis Anchalee had vented her frustration on Twitter about cab service drivers quizzing her about her name.
I wish I had $5 for every time a Lyft or Uber driver asks me about my name. It’s starting to make me angry.
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 15, 2015
NO I will NOT change my name. Wtf people
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 16, 2015
But Anchalee is not alone in this. Isis, the name of an Egyptian God was, until recently considered an exotic name, and conjured up images of Cleopatran beauty. Not anymore.
“My little girl is seven years old, I put her to bed crying her eyes out tonight because people were being horrible to her about her name. She is named Isis after the Egyptian Goddess. Islamic State themselves have not for some time now called themselves the acronym ISIS, so why can’t the media just stop? Please, please stop, you are destroying my innocent seven-year-old daughter’s childhood,” said one mother on a petition site, urging that people stop calling Islamic State as Isis.
Yes, there is actually a petition site where one lady named Isis Martinez (no surprises there) created a petition pleading with the media to stop calling Islamic State (IS) as Isis. “We are grateful for the response and coverage we have received from the media, but most media outlets continue to desecrate our name and even go as far as misquoting the President of the United States saying ISIS, when he only refers to the terror group as ISIL,” said the petition. “Please sign and help the thousands of women and little girls named Isis, who are suffering from this backlash caused by the media. Help us take back our name.”
So far, the petition has received support from 56,843 supporters. Is it irony or what, that in the war against Islamic State, women continue to be at the receiving end, even in this manner?
Meanwhile, Isis Anchalee is in favour of referring to the group as Daesh.
Can I get a “yes yes” to forever call them Daesh?
— Isis Anchalee (@isisAnchalee) November 17, 2015
Image Courtesy: <a href="../../content/David Molina G / Shutterstock.com” target=”_blank”>David Molina G / Shutterstock.com
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