A voice on the shoe throwing from Baghdad

[Bobby Kunhu]

The shoes we longed for
The young journalist who took on Bush has become a unifying Iraqi
symbol, a national hero
by
Sami Ramadani
The Guardian, Wednesday 17 December 2008
Article history
Within a few unlikely seconds, a pair of size 10 shoes have become the
most destructive weapon the people of Iraq have managed to throw at
the occupying powers, after nearly six years of occupation and
formidable resistance. One Iraqi writer called the shoes, hurled by a
journalist at George Bush, "Iraq's weapon of comprehensive
destruction".

While the uprisings of Falluja, Najaf, Basra and Baghdad against the
occupation will always remain as landmarks of a people resisting
occupation, these incredible seconds have united Iraqis in the most
dramatic fashion.

Contrary to most media coverage, the 28-year-old TV reporter Muntadhar
al-Zaidi made history not by merely throwing a pair of shoes, the
highest expression of insult in Iraqi culture, at the US president,
but by what he said while doing so and as he was smothered by US and
Iraqi security men. He groaned as they dragged him out of the press
conference. They succeeded in silencing him - and according to his
brother he was beaten in custody - but he had already said enough to
shake the occupation and Nouri al-Maliki's Green Zone regime to their
foundations.

Strip the words away, and his and the Iraqi people's cry of deep pain,
anger and defiance would amount to no more than a shoe-throwing
insult. But the words were heard. "This is the farewell kiss, you
dog," he shouted as he threw the first shoe. The crucial line followed
the second shoe: "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who
were killed in Iraq." Once those words were heard, the impact of a
pair of shoes became electrifying. A young journalist has put aside
the demands of his profession, preferring to act as the loudest cry of
his long-suffering people. If one considers the torture and killings
in Iraqi and US jails that Muntadhar often mentioned in his reports
for al-Baghdadia satellite TV station, he was certainly aware he
risked being badly hurt.

As the Iraqi and Arab satellite stations switched from the live press
conference to reporting reaction to the event, the stunned presenters
and reporters were swept away by popular expressions of joy in the
streets, from Baghdad to Gaza to Casablanca. TV stations and media
websites were inundated with messages of adulation. The instant reply
to any criticism of "insulting a guest" was: "Bush is a mass murderer
and a war criminal who sneaked into Baghdad. He killed a million
Iraqis. He burned the country down."

Expressions of support and demands for Muntadhar's immediate release
have spread from Najaf and Falluja to Baghdad, and from Mosul in the
north to Basra in the south. An impressive show of anti-occupation
unity is developing fast, after being weakened by the sectarian forces
that the occupation itself has strengthened and nourished, as
Muntadhar himself used to stress.

No one asked after Muntadhar's religion or sect, but they all loved
his message. Indeed, I have yet to come across an Iraqi media outlet
or website that pronounced on his religion, sect or ethnicity. The
first I heard of his "sect" was through US and British media.

The reality is that Muntadhar is a secular socialist whose hero
happens to be Che Guevara. He became a prominent leftwing student
leader immediately after the occupation, while at Baghdad University's
media college. He reported for al-Baghdadia on the poor and
downtrodden victims of the US war. He was first on the scene in Sadr
City and wherever people suffered violence or severe deprivation. He
not only followed US Apache helicopters' trails of death and
destruction, but he was also among the first to report every
"sectarian" atrocity and the bombing of popular market places. He let
the victims talk first.

It was effective journalism, reporting that the victims of violence
themselves accused the US-led occupation of being behind all the
carnage. He was a voice that could not be silenced, despite being
kidnapped by a gang and arrested by US and regime forces.

His passion for the war's victims and his staunchly anti-occupation
message endeared him to al-Baghdadia viewers. And after sending Bush
out of Iraq in ignominy he has become a formidable national hero. The
orphan who was brought up by his aunt, and whose name means the longed
or awaited for, has become a powerful unifying symbol of defiance, and
is being adopted by countless Iraqis as "our dearest son".

• Sami Ramadani, a political exile from Saddam's regime, is a senior
lecturer at London Metropolitan University
sami.r...@londonmet.ac.uk

--
Bobby Kunhu http://community.eldis.org/myshkin/Blog/