BBC Homepage
  • Skip to content
  • Accessibility Help
  • Your account
  • Notifications
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • More menu
More menu
Search BBC
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
Close menu
BBC News
Menu
  • Home
  • InDepth
  • Israel-Gaza war
  • War in Ukraine
  • Climate
  • UK
  • World
  • Business
  • Politics
  • Culture
More
  • Tech
  • Science
  • Health
  • Family & Education
  • In Pictures
  • Newsbeat
  • BBC Verify
  • Disability
  • BBC Trending

Qatar row: Daughter named Saudia and Harrods boycott call

  • Published
    29 June 2017
Share page
About sharing
Father and babyImage source, @Mltqa_al3nzh/Twitter
Image caption,

The proud Saudi father announces he is naming his daughter Al-Saudia

ByRozina Sini
BBC News

The diplomatic row between Saudi Arabia and Qatar is being played out on social media this week. Ordinary civilians have taken to Twitter to express their solidarity or voice their frustrations.

Parents in the Middle East are demonstrating their patriotism during the ongoing rift by naming their children after the country they support.

A Saudi national has named his new baby girl 'Al-Saudia' following a Kuwaiti father who last week announced that his daughter would be known as 'Qatar.'

The pledge of allegiance by Qatar's father inspired Ahmed al-Anizi to post a video on Twitter, external holding his newborn daughter wrapped in a Saudi flag, announcing: "In response to the Kuwaiti citizen who named his daughter Qatar, I am a Saudi citizen and I am naming the first baby that God has blessed me with al-Saudia"

Arab Twitter - a large but loose collection of people tweeting in Arabic, mostly living in Gulf countries - has responded to the latest baby naming with the hashtag #Saudi_names_his_daughter_Saudia, which has been tweeted more than 65,000 times since it was posted on the 27 June.

man and baby tweetImage source, @mltqa_al3nzh/twitter

The pledges of allegiance follow a rift between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and several other Arab states. They accuse Doha of supporting terrorism.

Kuwait, which is not one of the countries boycotting Doha, has been mediating in an attempt to heal the rift.

'This is not nationalism'

But there's been mixed reaction to the fathers' pledges of solidarity. Some applauded the move while others questioned why children were being brought into the political spat between the gulf countries,

One Twitter user posted:, external "Today I feel proud of the awareness of this nation's youth of the dangers of our enemies, who work day and night to shatter our unity."

Another commented: , external"I wish I could have been named Saudia because this would be an honour for me. Yes, I am a Saudi and proud of it and hopefully if I get married, I'll name my first-born Saudia."

You might also like:

  • Grenfell 'miracle baby': Why people invent fake victims of attacks and disasters

  • Why a 19th Century Russian poet is going viral on Facebook

  • Twitter reacts to reporter's 'bizarre moment' with Trump

Others were less impressed at the expression of loyalty: "This is not nationalism, just like the person who named his daughter Qatar," posted another Twitter user, external. "This is pretentiousness mixed with defiance, and without consideration for the fact that the child has become a commodity in this situation."

Another Twitter user, external agreed: "No matter how patriotic you are, it shouldn't reach the point of calling your daughter a name that might cause her issues when she grows up. Call her a nice name and express your patriotism some other way."

Qatari's laugh off calls to boycott Harrods

Harrods in Knightsbridge, LondonImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Harrods department store in London is owned by the state of Qatar

Baby naming is not the only way civilians in the gulf are becoming involved in the diplomatic row.

Qatari online users have today reacted sarcastically to a call by an Emirati official to boycott the UK's famous department store Harrods, which is owned by the Qatari royal family.

The Arabic hashtag "Boycott Qatari Harrods" is a top trend in Qatar, attracting approximately 20,000 tweets in 24 hours. Users criticised the campaign and downplayed its impact on Qatari investments.

The critical comments came in response to a tweet on 26 June, external by Sultan Ali Rashid, Chairman of the Emirati-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce in Oslo, who said: "Every dirham spent in Harrods means participation in spilling blood of innocent people. Do not support the state of terrorism. Join us in the boycott of Qatari Harrods."

Childish act

One Twitter user, external described the call as "childish" while another mocked the boycott, external as unnecessary if Harrods has a no-dogs-allowed policy.

One Twitter user , externalin Doha questioned whether it would have any impact on the famous store: "Harrods is one of the biggest icons of London. You think one or two countries boycotting would affect its profit?"

Others joked Harrods shouldn't be the only place to be singled out, given other places and brands were Qatari-owned.

As this Qatari twitter user, external pointed out: "By the way, Qatar owns a percentage of Heathrow Airport. So, do not come to London."

By the UGC and Social News team; Additional reporting by BBC Monitoring's Sumaya Bakhsh and Zakariya Ayyad

You can follow BBC Trending on Twitter @BBCtrending, and find us on Facebook. All our stories are at bbc.com/trending.

More on this story

  • Qatar country profile

    • Published
      7 September 2023
    Map of Qatar
  • The deep diplomatic tensions behind the Qatar row

    • Published
      9 June 2017
    The Doha skyline
  • Qatar condemns Saudi refusal to negotiate

    • Published
      28 June 2017
    Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani shakes hands with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the state department in Washington on 27 June 2017
  • Qatar isolated by its neighbours

    • Published
      5 June 2017
    A sign indicating a route to Qatar embassy is seen in Manama, Bahrain, 5 June 2017.
  • Qatar 'facing indefinite isolation'

    • Published
      27 June 2017
    A Qatar airways plane at Doha airport
  • Qatar crisis: Have Saudis gone too far?

    • Published
      16 June 2017
    A woman and a boy walk past the Qatar Airways branch in the Saudi capital Riyadh. Photo: 5 June 2017
  • White House: Gulf row is a 'family issue'

    • Published
      23 June 2017
    Doha, Qatar
  • Saudi revokes Qatar Airways' licence

    • Published
      6 June 2017
    Qatar Airways plane (file picture)

Related internet links

  • Alsumaria

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Top stories

  • One iPhone led police to gang suspected of sending up to 40,000 stolen UK phones to China

    • Published
      4 hours ago
  • Mother of Israeli hostage says she still doesn't know if he's alive or dead

    • Published
      2 hours ago
  • Gaza peace plan talks to continue as Trump says chance of a deal is 'really good'

    • Published
      4 minutes ago

More to explore

  • I was fooled into paying £500 to be a model. Here's how to avoid my mistake

    Older woman with short blonde hair wearing a red top and white trousers posing for a photoshoot
  • 'UK Gaza protests going ahead' and 'Romp in Peace, Jilly'

    A composite image of The i Paper and The Sun. "UK Gaza protest going ahead today on anniversary of October 7 massacre" and "Romp in Peace, Jilly" reads the headlines of the two respectively.
  • What makes this US shutdown different (and more difficult)

    A woman wearing a dress with a black sleeveless top and a knee-length stripped black, white and bright pink skirt looks at a sign in front of the National Gallery of Art saying it is "closed due to federal government shutdown"
  • 'I was lucky to get out': Everest hikers battle hypothermia as blizzard rescue continues

    Person wearing winter trekking gear ploughing through a huge snow drift on Mount Everest
  • The true cost of cyber attacks - and the business weak spots that allow them to happen

    M&S and JLR logos
  • Sex, class, horses: The unique mix that made Jilly Cooper's books special

    Jill Cooper sitting at a piano, pictured in 1996
  • Does your relationship have a swag gap, and is that always a bad thing?

    Jessica Raialo wearing a green and blue flower patterned jacket, orange neck scarf, grey and red t-shirt and a belt, next to her boyfriend wearing a dark cap and long-sleeved top.
  • EastEnders' Kellie Bright on the challenges of being parent of an autistic child

    Kellie Bright is wearing a bright red shirt with white lace details, leaning forward with hands on a colourful floral-patterned surface, against a plain light background. Her hair is tied up with a pink accessory.
  • News Daily: Our flagship daily newsletter delivered to your inbox first thing, with all the latest headlines

    A promo promoting the News Daily newsletter - a graphic of an orange sphere with two concentric crescent shapes around it in a red-orange gradient, like a sound wave.
loading elsewhere stories

Most read

  1. 1

    One iPhone led police to gang suspected of sending up to 40,000 stolen UK phones to China

  2. 2

    Pharmacies facing angry patients over Covid jab confusion

  3. 3

    'UK Gaza protests going ahead' and 'Romp in Peace, Jilly'

  4. 4

    I was fooled into paying £500 to be a model. Here's how to avoid my mistake

  5. 5

    Conservatives promise to scrap Sentencing Council

  6. 6

    British parts found in Russian drones, Zelensky says

  7. 7

    Footage shows Jihad Al-Shamie before attack

  8. 8

    Renewables overtake coal as world's biggest source of electricity

  9. 9

    Queen leads tributes to 'wonderfully witty friend' Dame Jilly Cooper

  10. 10

    First-year resident doctors back strike action over jobs shortage

BBC News Services

  • On your mobile
  • On smart speakers
  • Get news alerts
  • Contact BBC News

Best of the BBC

  • The Bafta-winning Belfast police drama returns

    • Attribution
      iPlayer

    Added to Watchlist
    Blue Lights has been added to your iPlayer Watchlist.
    Blue Lights
  • Andy Zaltzman dissects the week's news

    • Attribution
      Sounds

    Added to My Sounds
    The News Quiz has been added to your My Sounds.
  • Exposing a disturbing scam targeting teenage boys

    • Attribution
      iPlayer

    Added to Watchlist
    Blackmailed: The Sextortion Killers has been added to your iPlayer Watchlist.
    Blackmailed: The Sextortion Killers
  • The foods that could help you live to 100

    • Attribution
      Sounds

    Added to My Sounds
    The Food Chain has been added to your My Sounds.
    The Food Chain
  • Home
  • News
  • Sport
  • Weather
  • iPlayer
  • Sounds
  • Bitesize
  • CBBC
  • CBeebies
  • Food
  • Terms of Use
  • About the BBC
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookies
  • Accessibility Help
  • Parental Guidance
  • Contact the BBC
  • Make an editorial complaint
  • BBC emails for you

Copyright © 2025 BBC. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read about our approach to external linking.