MB character Palindrome check. Does not work

palindrome.py

#! env python3

names = ['Julio', 'racecar', 'umbrella', 'Madam', u'すます', u'😃😜😞😜😃', u'😃😜😞😜']

def pali(word):
    #word = alphaonly(word).lower()
    print(word+"?")
    for i in range(0,(int)(len(word)/2)+1):
        if word[i] is not word[(i+1)*-1]:
            print(word[i]+", "+word[(i+1)*-1]+" do not match.")
            return False
    return True

def alphaonly(word):
    import re
    #return re.sub('[^a-zA-Z]','',word)
    return word #re.sub('[!"#$%&\'()*+,-./:;<=>?@[\\]^_`{|}~]','',word)

[print(str(pali(name))) for name in names]