Rotten eggs were popular, and so were tomatoes, but protesters are increasingly using shoes as improvised missiles in an act of dissent, writes ROSITA BOLAND
SO WHAT DO these two quotes have in common: “Get out of the university, thief IMF!” and “This is your farewell kiss, you dog!”? They were both shouted by men who threw shoes at famous speakers as a form of very public protest.
Last week, Selçuk Özbek, a Turkish journalism student, threw his Nike sneaker at Dominique Strauss-Kahn. It didn’t hit him, because it bounced off another student on its downward trajectory through the lecture theatre, but the intention to insult was clear. Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, was speaking at a university in Istanbul when the shoe came his way. Özbek was immediately led away in a headlock.
It’s highly likely that Özbek’s demonstration of protest was influenced by Muntadar al-Zaidi. In December last year, al-Zaidi, a correspondent with the Al-Baghdadia television network, flung both his shoes in quick succession at George Bush at a press conference during his surprise visit to Baghdad. Al-Zaidi, who had previously reported on the human cost of the Iraqi war, particularly focusing on widows and orphaned children, used the opportunity of the closed press conference and his access as a journalist, to express his views about US foreign policy, as represented by its president.
The shoe-throwing insult carried a symbolic meaning beyond the gesture itself: in Muslim culture, it’s a traditional sign of the deepest disrespect. After the first Gulf war, Saddam Hussein made a point of commissioning and installing a mosaic of George Bush snr in the lobby of Baghdad’s Al Rashid Hotel. Guests who came and went were forced to step on his face to transit through the building. Later, in 2003, the Iraqi people took off their shoes to hit toppled statues of Saddam Hussein throughout the country.
Al-Zaidi’s shoe-throwing at Bush swiftly became international news. There are at least a dozen clips of the scene on YouTube, including cartoons inspired by the incident. He was originally given a jail sentence of three years, but was released last month.
Shoe-throwing may be a recent trend, but pelting objects at people as an ancillary form of humiliation is an age-old tradition. It was certainly around in medieval England, when the unfortunate people who were sentenced to do time in the stocks were frequently the targets of rotten eggs and soft vegetables by members of the public.
Food is a precious resource in many cultures, so it makes sense to throw a stinking inedible egg at someone, rather than one that’s fresh. Tomatoes are soft, thus, like eggs, guaranteeing maximum impact for minimum pain. In recent years, while eggs and over-ripe tomatoes have maintained popularity as missiles, they’ve been joined by flour and gloopy pies. There’s hardly a controversial politician around who hasn’t been at the receiving end of some form of wobbly cake, egg yolk or past-its-best vegetable.
Margaret Thatcher was regularly the target of missiles. In 1984, after she left a Tory meeting at which she had condemned the miners’ strike, an egg hit her in the face.
It was not the only food item that came her way that day: so too did butter, ice-cream and tomatoes, but they missed. A spokesperson later stressed that the butter was from New Zealand, as they “didn’t want to waste good British butter”.
George Bush did not react when the shoes came his way last December, apart from instinctively ducking. It was clear the perpetrator was going to receive a severe punishment from his own authorities.
However, for British politician John Prescott, it was a different story when he found himself the target of public abuse. In 2001, when he was deputy prime minister, Prescott was hit by an egg when he was campaigning in Wales. The egg, which broke on his face, was thrown by farmer Craig Evans, who was standing right beside Prescott as he walked past. Prescott, who had once been an amateur boxer, immediately punched Evans in the face with his left fist; an incident caught on camera. The media never let him forget it.
In general, though, politicians take missile-throwing as a distasteful, but necessary, part of the job. Last week, after Dominique Strauss-Kahn had had his shoe-throwing experience, he later commented drily: “One thing I learned, Turkish students are polite. They waited until the end to complain.”
