Tossing Shoes: In The Arab World, A Gesture of Contempt

[Hissyspit]

Wow, someone on wikipedia.org was fast: :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe_tossing

In the Arab world: a gesture of contempt

In the Arab world, shoe flinging is a gesture of extreme disrespect. A notable occurrence of this gesture happened in Baghdad, Iraq in 2003. When U.S. forces pulled down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, many Iraqi detractors of Hussein threw their shoes at the fallen statue.

This may be an ancient gesture from the Middle East; Psalms 60:10, speaking of some of the traditional enemies of Judah, says that "Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe...." (KJV)

The shoe represents the lowest part of the body (the foot) and displaying or throwing a shoe at someone or something in Arab cultures denotes that the person or thing is "beneath them." Showing the bottom of one's feet or shoes (for example, putting one's feet up on a table or desk) in Arab cultures is considered an extreme insult. Examples include Iraqi citizens smacking torn-down posters of Saddam Hussein with their shoes, and the depiction of President of the United States George H. W. Bush on a tile mosaic of the floor of the Al-Rashid Hotel's lobby, forcing all visitors entering the hotel to walk on Bush's face to enter the hotel.

During President George W. Bush's surprise visit to Iraq in December 2008, an Iraqi man threw shoes at him during a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Kamel al-Maliki.

[DesertFlower]

1. bill richardson got in trouble

with saddam by inadvertently letting the bottom of his shoe show. saddam walked out.

[Ediacara]

3. To hear Richardson tell it, it wasn't entirely inadvertent...

[DesertFlower]

2. i remember when saddam

statute came down a man was beating it with his shoe.

[lib2DaBone]

4. 10,000 shoes to rain down on Bush Motorcade.... ahhhhhhhh..so nice....

[BlooInBloo]

5. As opposed to other cultures where it's an act of genuflection?

:shrug:

[Hissyspit]

7. Well, the term 'shoe tossing' can also refer to throwing your lace-tied shoes

onto a power line in celebration of an event, which I imagine is more common in the U.S. than throwing your shoe AT someone, although that happens, too, I'm sure.

[UTUSN]

6. That's where Shub went wrong, where he & CHEENEE thought we would be greeted with FLOWERS,

it must have been a brand of shoe named Flowers!1 (HEY!1 I'm making 'em up on the fly, O.K.?!1)