Shoeing

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. 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.

Posters of 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". Shoeing received attention after Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at then U.S. President George W. Bush in a 14 December 2008 press conference in Baghdad, Iraq. Since the al-Zaidi incident, copycat incidents in Europe, North America, India, China, Hong Kong, Iran, Turkey and Australia have been reported.

Shoes are considered unclean in the Arab World. Matthew Cassel of The Electronic Intifada in the context of the "Bush shoeing" incident has expressed the opinion that the Western media overplayed the phenomenon as being "Arab" in particular.

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Wikipedia