Twitter Is Outraged That Gigi Hadid Incorrectly Called Zayn “Half-Middle Eastern”

Gigi Hadid made a mistake that is not winning her any love from Zayn Malik fans. While promoting her capsule collection with Tommy Hilfiger in Dubai, Hadid talked to the English-language Middle Eastern newspaper Gulf News about feeling a connection to her dad, who is Palestinian, whenever she travels to the Middle East. "I especially love it when you meet other Arabs,” she said. “There’s such a sense of family regardless of whether you are blood-related or not anywhere in the world." Hadid said people will come up to her and tell her that they are also Palestinian, "and we make a connection, it’s beautiful.” The model then talked about having this same connection with Malik. “My boyfriend is also half-Middle Eastern," she said. "It’s just a connection that you make that’s really cool. It’s hard to explain, but you feel like you’re amongst [your] people.” The problem with this statement is, Malik is actually half-Pakistani and half-British. Pakistan is a South Asian country that shares a border with India, not a Middle Eastern one. While Gulf News was quick to point out this fact, the paper also mentioned that the two do share a "love for the Arabic language, with Malik sporting Arabic tattoos and using Arabic script in his merchandise, which Hadid often wears." But Twitter wasn't buying it, with some people questioning how Hadid could get her boyfriend's ethnicity wrong. "Just so you know, Pakistan is an Asian country, sis," one user wrote with a GIF of Prince drinking a cup of tea. Others used Hadid's mistake as a teachable moment. As one fan admitted, "I guess like @GiGiHadid I just learned Pakistan isn't considered the Middle East."