Naming animals with human names isn’t exactly out of the norm, but a fresh case involving a horse that bears the name of the Prophet Muhammad’s wife has sparked quite a controversy in Indonesia.
The controversy began when singer/actress Gisella Anastasia posted a series of videos showing her 6-year-old daughter, Gempita Nora Marten, riding a horse at an equestrian center in Bali. In the beginning of the video below, Gisel asked Gempi the name of her horse, which she answered, “Aisyah.”
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The video continues with Gempi riding Aisyah in the horse arena. In quite a worrying moment, Aisyah stepped on Gempi’s foot as she came down from the horse, with the girl unhurt and later scolding the horse. Thankfully, the pair made up later, with Gempi brushing Aisyah’s fur and mane.
What began as a wholesome mother-daughter holiday video took an unexpected turn after a religious figure named Umar Hasibuan AKA Gus Umar, a member of Indonesia’s biggest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), called Gisel out in a tweet.
“Gisel really has no manners. She named her horse after Prophet Muhammad’s wife,” Gus Umar’s tweet reads.
Aisha bint Abu Bakar was Prophet Muhammad’s third and youngest wife, and her name — as well as the “Aisyah” spelling variation — is one of the most common names among Muslim women in Indonesia. While Gisel limited comments on her Instagram, many netizens have since demanded that she change the name of the horse because of how it’s “highly revered in Islam.”
That is before they realized that Gisel doesn’t actually own the horse.
Gisel clarified the situation in the post below:
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“I’m sorry, I will write it down here to clear the situation. At @baliequestriancentre, each horse has their own name, they’re all written in front of their stalls as you can see in the photos and videos uploaded previously. With all due respect, that’s how we as the visitors also call the horse according to the names given by their owners. Love you all,” Gisel explained.
The Bali Equestrian Centre also took its fair share of heat from netizens, as many of them flooded one of its most recent posts with demands to change Aisyah’s name.
“Hello gang, we have received a lot of direct messages, for your information the name of the pony is AYSHA, and she’s been here since 2016,” the center wrote, never agreeing to change the horse’s name.
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