Valentina Fierro has no plans to change the name of her business.
The owner of Isis Essentials and Erotica shop in downtown Nelson will be keeping her store moniker in spite of some backlash since the recent media coverage of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.
“People have said to me ‘Do you know what it [ISIS] stands for?’ and I tell them yes, Isis is the first mother goddess,” said Fierro.
“She’s the goddess of health and fertility and mothering. Of course I will not change my [store] name. It’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s an acronym that was claimed by the US media for an organization that I doubt they call themselves Isis, especially not in Arabic.”
Heinous crimes by the Islamic State have been highlighted in the media recently, including the videos of the beheading of two journalist by the group.
Fierro said there has been some anger directed her way. “Some people have been quite incensed thinking that I have an affiliation with the terrorist group.”
Fierro’s shop is full of essential oils, sex toys and erotica.
She has owned the store for 15 years and her licence plate bears the shop name too. That posed a bit of a problem for her when she went to cross the US border last week. The border guard asked her what her licence plate stood for. When she explained it was for her business which was the purpose of her travel, the guard let her through.
“To associate a goddess that’s thousands of years old with a terrorist group, its unfortunate that the US media has chosen this acronym,” she said.
“What, are we going to change the goddess’s name? Isis is an amazing goddess about women’s wisdom. That was the point of me choosing the name.”
The Islamic State (IS), formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), is a Sunni jihadist group in the Middle East.