The Rich Political Career of an Iraqi Shoe, Part 1

PART1 includes: Shoes in Arab Culture, Shoes and Democracy, al-Baghdadiya's Background, A Brief History of the Political Career of Shoes in Iraq.

PART2 will include: Pro-Shoe Flagellation, Analysis of al-Zaydi's intentions, story of Abbas's Attempt To Throw Shoe At Authority Figure.


:::: SHOES IN ARAB CULTURE :::


BY NOW many people have explained to you Americans the very insulting connotations a shoe hurled at your face has in our civillization-challenged culture, one of the more obnoxious jokes at Angry Arab's was to shoehorn (yeah) this significance as Western media bias against Arabs (the joke had a great payoff with al-Zaidi's farewell kiss) but the difference is vast and comes from very different perceptions of the world. I'm not an expert, but it seems to me that the insult stems from height (not smell, for example), with the association of shoes suggesting the lowest possible 'rung' in society, as opposed to the glory and pride with the highest possible point, such as the headgear which often has associations with 'honor', as well as the compliment ala rassi= on my head), I'm sure something like Hollywood Avenue would only be viewed as an extreme insult in the Arab world."
Catharsis