‘Allah’ surname fight for couple’s daughter sparks lawsuit against Georgia Department of Health

The Georgia Department of Health faces a lawsuit over a couple’s desire to designate “Allah” as their daughter’s surname.

Officials in the Peach State are not keen on giving Elizabeth Handy’s and Bilal Walk’s daughter the appellation and now the ACLU of Georgia is involved. The couple have tried for three years to name their daughter ZalyKha Graceful Lorraina Allah, but to no avail. The Georgia ACLU therefore filed a lawsuit on their behalf on March 23.

Andrea Young, the executive director of the Georgia ACLU, told CNN on Thursday that officials are too narrowly reading a regulation that requires parents to use a mother’s last name, the father’s last name or a combination of both when naming their child.

“The regulation goes outside the bounds of plain language of statute,” Ms. Young said.

Exceptions can be made for a “bona fide cultural tradition.”

“This regulation initially did not have exception for bona fide cultural traditions … but who has authority to judge that,” Ms. Young asked. “A clerk, a judge, given whole variety of cultures?”

The family’s two sons from a previous marriage, ages 3 and 16, both have the surname “Allah.”

“This is always the thing with individual liberties,” Ms. Young continued. “It may not be obvious to other people but in a country that’s based on liberty and freedom of expression these are very personal areas that government shouldn’t have the right to dictate.”

The legal limbo has prevented the family from obtaining an official birth certificate and social security number, CNN reported.