List of shoe-throwing incidents

"Shoeing" redirects here. For the fitting of horseshoes, see Horseshoe.
For the throwing of shoes for entertainment, see Shoe tossing.

U.S. president George W. Bush ducking a thrown shoe while Iraq prime minister Nouri al-Maliki attempts to parry it.[1]

Shoe-throwing, or shoeing, showing the sole of one's shoe or using shoes to insult are forms of protest in many parts of the world. Shoe-throwing as an insult dates back to ancient times, being mentioned in verse 8 of Psalm 60 and the similar verse 9 of Psalm 108 in the Old Testament. Modern incidents where shoes were thrown at political figures have taken place in Australia, India, Ireland, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and most notably the Arab world.[2][3]

Posters of former U.S. President George W. Bush's face have long appeared through the Middle East with shoes attached to them, and some people have called former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice kundara, meaning "shoe".[3] Shoeing received attention after Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at then-President Bush in a 14 December 2008 press conference in Baghdad, Iraq. Since the al-Zaidi incident, copycat incidents in Europe, North America, India, China, Iran, Turkey[4] and Australia have been reported.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC081214 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Arab culture: the insult of the shoe". The Telegraph. 15 December 2008. Archived from the original on 25 July 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b "Bush shoe-ing worst Arab insult". 15 December 2008. Archived from the original on 30 May 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  4. ^ "Turkey: student protester hurls shoe at IMF chief - Yahoo! News". Archived from the original on 5 October 2009. Retrieved 17 November 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)