A Saudi father has named his baby daughter Ivanka, after the daughter of US President Donald Trump.
According to the story, the choice of name was a result of a challenge put to the father by some friends.
Ivanka al-Anzi was born on April 26 at Arar’s Maternity Hospital, and her name was printed on the hospital’s birth certificate.
Her father, Salem Amer Salem al-Ayashi al-Anzi said his friends told him the name would not be accepted by Saudi Arabia’s General Administration of Civil Status, which regularly prevents socially unacceptable, religiously impermissible, or blasphemous names from being recorded.
In March 2014, Saudi Arabia’s Interior Ministry banned 50 names considered “blasphemous” or “foreign.”
A number of countries, including Japan, Denmark and Switzerland have strict naming laws, sometimes limiting the choice to an approved list, often to prevent parents from giving odd names that suit their fancy at the time of birth, but will cause the child to suffer later.
However, according to Salem, who spoke to Arab News, there are “no religious or moral prohibitions in Arabic or Saudi culture against the name.”
Indeed, Salem – now nicknamed Abu Ivanka (father of Ivanka) said a friend told him the name means “G-d is gracious.”
“I admire the leadership of her (Ivanka Trump’s – ed.) father,” Salem al-Anzi explained, saying Trump had taken revenge for the slaughter of “innocent children” by firing “70 missiles” at a Syrian air force base.
Al-Anzi said he was looking forward to Trump’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia.
