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As anyone who has been to the Middle East (or even to countries like India) knows, the foot and shoe are imbued with considerable significance.
The foot occupies the lowest rung in the bodily hierarchy and the shoe, in addition to being something in which the foot is placed, is in constant contact with dirt, soil and worse. The sole of the shoe is the most unclean part of an unclean object. In northern India, where I grew up, the exhortation "Jooté maro!" ("Hit him with shoes!") was invoked when one sought to administer the most demeaning punishment. (Another footwear tidbit: The effigies of unpopular politicians in India are regularly garlanded with shoes and paraded down the streets.)

In the Muslim world, according to Hume Horan, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, "to have the sole of the shoe directed toward one is pretty much the equivalent of someone in our culture giving you the finger." Matthew Gordon, a historian of Islam, says that since one takes one's shoes off before entering a mosque--as a way of maintaining the purity of the place of worship--"the use of a shoe as something to hit you with is an inversion, directing impurity and pollution at the object of the beating."

The fact that the shoe-as-anathema idea stretches across the Arab world into India suggests that the cultural aversions (and the attendant insults) predate Islam and may have had their origins in a poorly understood--but basically correct--connection between dirt (i.e., pollution) and footwear. In societies where levels of public hygiene are low (e.g., much of the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent), it is still commonplace to remove one's shoes before entering a private home, and not just places of worship. Which begs the question, of course, of why shoes weren't so removed in medieval Europe, whose streets were just as dung-flecked, or are not so removed in present-day, non-Muslim Africa.

But the fact remains that Iraqis today are deriving sumptuous pleasure--part ritual, part catharsis--from their chance to hit Saddam with the soles of their shoes. In this, they are not merely degrading him but also exacting retribution for bastinadoes suffered in the past. There probably isn't a single non-Baath-Party Iraqi who wasn't personally beaten or knocked about by the authorities--or who doesn't know someone so ill-used.

Ultimately, there could also be a practical explanation for "the shoes." It may well be that in impoverished Iraq, nobody except those in the military could afford decent footwear. So kick the bronze head too hard and you hurt your own foot. Better, and safer, to take the shoe off and go thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack.

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Iraqi shoe-throwing reporter becomes the talk of Iraq

By Waleed Ibrahim
Mon Dec 15, 11:46 am ET

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush has become the talk of Iraq, hailed by marchers as a national hero but blasted by the government as a barbarian.
The little-known Shi'ite reporter, said to have harbored anger against Bush for the thousands of Iraqis who died after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, had previously made headlines only once, when he was briefly kidnapped by gunmen in 2007.
TV reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi remained in detention on Monday, accused by the Iraqi government of a "barbaric act." He would be sent for trial on charges of insulting the Iraqi state, said the prime minister's media adviser, Yasin Majeed.
His employer, independent al-Baghdadiya television, demanded his release and demonstrators rallied for him in Baghdad's Sadr City, in the southern Shi'ite stronghold of Basra and in the holy city of Najaf, where some threw shoes at a U.S. convoy.
"Thanks be to God, Muntazer's act fills Iraqi hearts with pride," his brother, Udai al-Zaidi, told Reuters Television.
"I'm sure many Iraqis want to do what Muntazer did. Muntazer used to say all the orphans whose fathers were killed are because of Bush."
Zaidi shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog," at Bush in a news conference he held with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during a farewell visit to Baghdad on Sunday.
The journalist then flung one shoe at Bush, forcing him to duck, followed by another, which sailed over Bush's head and slammed into the wall behind him. Throwing shoes at someone is the worst possible insult in the Arab world.
Zaidi was dragged struggling and screaming from the room by security guards and could be heard shouting outside while the news conference continued after momentary mayhem.
'BARBARIC'
The government said Zaidi had carried out "a barbaric and ignominious act" that was not fitting of the media's role and demanded an apology from his television station.
Al-Baghdadiya television played endless patriotic music, with Zaidi's face plastered across the screen.
A newscaster solemnly read out a statement calling for his release, "in accordance with the democratic era and the freedom of expression that Iraqis were promised by U.S. authorities."
It said that any harsh measures taken against the reporter would be reminders of the "dictatorial era."
The Iraqi Journalists' Syndicate said Zaidi's "far from professional" and irresponsible conduct had placed it in an "embarrassing and critical" situation. Nevertheless, it called on Maliki to release him for humanitarian reasons.
"It was the throw of the century. I believe Bush deserves what happened to him because he has not kept his promises to Iraqis," said Baghdad resident Abu Hussein, 48.
Parliamentary reaction was mixed, with some saying Zaidi chose the wrong venue for his protest. Others cheered.
"Al-Zaidi's shoe is the most famous shoe in the whole world," said Fawzi Akram, a Turkman lawmaker loyal to anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
A Libyan charity group chaired by..............http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081215/wl_nm/us_iraq_bush_shoes