While I was surfing the Internet last week, a European friend of mine sent me a “quick and urgent” email asking if I could explain to him the cultural and political significance of throwing shoes at a rival. He asked what difference there was in throwing a shoe and throwing any other object in Arabian culture. Though he did not mention anything about the George Bush incident, his questions were clearly coming from that direction. I replied that throughout history, shoe-throwing has always been used to send a political message and was never intended to harm anyone. Following the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, several Iraqi protesters whacked Saddam's famous statue with shoes after US marines had toppled it. Western media and subsequent US press conferences hailed the protesters' response describing it as a natural outcome of people oppressed by tyranny throughout Saddam's years in power. But what these protesters did not know was that Iraq would sink deep into chaos and political stagnation, and further, lose all hope for a prosperous and stable future. According to several unofficial figures, as many as one million Iraqi men and women have lost their lives since the US-led invasion of Iraq six years ago. A simple calculation tells us that it would be hard to find an Iraqi family that has not lost a loved one in this crazy war. Many Iraqis have been detained in prisons without access to a free and fair trial. Video footage from inside these prisons reveals the appalling conditions in which the prisoners live. Some were even severely tortured and humiliated by the new “liberators.” As many as five million Iraqis were driven out of their homeland to live in exile. The fragile security in Iraq is demonstrated by the fact that visits of high-ranking officials to Iraq have been kept secret and terms like “sudden, unannounced visit” have often been used. Nearly all Bush's visits to Iraq – up to five visits since he claimed victory there – were extremely secretive. In one of his visits in September 2007, he met and praised Abu Reshah, a tribal leader who headed the Anbar Awakening movement. Shortly after Bush left Iraq, Abu Reshah was assassinated in a bomb blast. President Bush's final visit to the Iraqi capital was no less dramatic. In a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki inside a highly fortified hall with heavy security, an angry Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes, one after the other, at the American president while the latter was preparing himself to answer the journalists' questions. The president managed to escape, but the underlying symbolism of the event has gone far beyond a mere shoe-throwing incident. Despite the fact that Bush had a chance to claim that Iraqis were reaping the fruit of a promised democracy, the incident shows that winning minds and hearts of Iraqis is as big a challenge as winning the war in Iraq. Bush promised his people that the Iraqis would welcome US troops with roses, but the resistance has been unprecedented since the Vietnam war. More than 4,000 US marines have been killed in Iraq. Everybody knows that this official number, when compared with the exact number of casualties, is pretty modest. Outside Iraq, the euphoria that swept the entire Arab and Muslim world was reflected in the strong sentiments that surfaced last week. The Iraqi journalist was hailed as a hero who was protesting using the only means he had. Back to my friend's question: It is well-known among Arabs that throwing shoes at someone or even waving them in someone's face is a sign of absolute contempt and disdain. In Arab history, shoe-throwing was long associated with frustration, misfortune and insult. It is not, though, a sign of democracy in progress in the so-called new Iraq, as claimed by some war enthusiasts in America's right-wing media. On the contrary, it is evidence that democracy advanced by tanks and rockets brings nothing but chaos and misery. __
