List of shoe-throwing incidents

Context

Notable incidents

359

• Constantius II, Roman Emperor, was giving a speech from a hillock to a group of Limigantes to ask for their loyalty, when he was hit by a shoe thrown by one of them. The thrower shouted "Marha, marha!" in a "signal of war."

  2007

• April 3: Famous writer and legislator Li Ao threw white sneakers being prepared to Su Chen-chang, Premier of Taiwan, to show protest against the previous DPP legislator Wang Shu-hui's shoe-flying against Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng.

  2008

• 7 April: Arbab Ghulam Rahim, the former Chief Minister of Sindh, Pakistan, was leaving the back door of the Sindh assembly building after taking oath as a newly elected member when he was hit by a shoe allegedly thrown by Agha Javed Pathan, a worker from the Pakistan Peoples Party.
• 14 December: During a press conference at the Prime Minister's Palace in Baghdad, Iraq, journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi threw his shoes at then United States President George W. Bush. "This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog!" yelled al-Zaidi in Arabic as he threw his first shoe towards the U.S. president. "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq!" he shouted as he threw his second shoe. President Bush ducked twice, avoiding being hit by the shoes.
• 17 December: Queens resident and Amtrak employee Stephen Millies, a protester at a meeting of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, tried to throw his shoe at the CEO of the MTA with the statement, "This shoe is for you!" Millies managed to shake off his left shoe before being stopped and detained by MTA Police.
• 17 December: The anti-war group Code Pink pelted shoes at an effigy of then-U.S. President George W. Bush outside the White House. Protesters presented their shoes at U.S. embassies around the world to show their support for al-Zaidi.
• 19 December: Ukrainian reporter Ihor Dmitriv pelted a Ukrainian politician with a shoe when Dmitriv became angered by the politician's sexist remarks. Speaking about Ukraine's possible accession to NATO, Oleh Soskin said NATO membership was more favored by the Ukrainian women, as they were "the more intelligent" part of the body politic. Dmitriv said his attack was motivated by the Ukrainian leadership's "craziness" and said "a shoe is going to become a leading means to influence their leaders."
• 20 December: Protesters in Montreal and Toronto threw shoes at posters of then-U.S. President George W. Bush in front of their respective U.S. consulates to support Muntadhar al-Zaidi, to demand his immediate release, and to celebrate his gesture. The shoe tosses took place in −24 °C weather during protests against the U.S. military occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and against Canada's involvement in the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. At the shoe toss event in Toronto, Ahmed Habib, a refugee from Baghdad, said, "We don't think of Muntadhar al-Zaidi as a criminal but, in fact, we think of him as a hero. The only war criminal is George Bush and his buddy Stephen Harper, so shame on the both of them." At the shoe toss event in Montreal, Québec solidaire leader and MNA Amir Khadir threw his shoes at a picture of President Bush and was later criticized and accused of betraying the "dignity and responsibilities of a MNA."

  2009

• 20 January: Protesters in the United States shoed an inflatable replica of George W. Bush in replication of al-Zaidi's shoe-throwing incident.
• 2 February: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was in London, speaking with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown about economic cooperation and trade relations between China and the United Kingdom. That day, Wen was scheduled to give the Rede Lecture at the University of Cambridge entitled, "See China in the Light of Her Development". As Wen came to the end of his lecture, a man, later identified as a 27-year-old German national Martin Jahnke, stood from the audience, blew a whistle and shouted, "How can the university prostitute itself with this dictator here? How can you listen to these lies he's telling?" Jahnke then threw his shoe at Wen, although the shoe landed a few feet away. Fellow members of the audience shouted at Jahnke, "Shame on you", as he was escorted out of the auditorium. Jahnke was promptly removed from the lecture by university proctors and then arrested by police on suspicion of breach of the peace and attempted assault. After the shoe was thrown, Premier Wen commented, "this despicable behaviour cannot stand in the way of friendship between China and the UK." University Vice-Chancellor Alison Richard commented, "I deeply regret that a single member of the audience this afternoon failed to show the respect for our speaker that is customary at Cambridge. This university is a place for considered argument and debate, not for shoe-throwing." Premier Wen urged leniency for the German student. "Education is best for a young student, and I hope he will have the opportunity to continue his education. The return of a prodigal is worth more than gold", said the message from Wen, posted on the Foreign Ministry website. A district judge later concluded there was insufficient evidence to prove that Jahnke's behavior had caused harassment, alarm or distress to the Chinese leader or anyone else in the lecture theater. "I didn't want to hit the premier personally. I thought just placing the shoe on the stage would be universally understood. What it was meant to be was a symbolic protest. I didn't intend to hurt people." During his trial, Jahnke's lawyers alleged that his prosecution was being pushed forward under pressure from the Chinese government, and that there had been political interference in the trial, though this accusation was dismissed by the trial judge due to lack of evidence.
• 5 February: Israeli Ambassador to Sweden Benny Dagan was hit by a protester's shoe while speaking about the 2009 Gaza War. The shoe throwers reportedly chanted "Murderer!" and "Intifada!".
• 6 March: During a trip to the city of Urmia, someone threw a shoe at the motorcade of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. People had become angry after the president's convoy hit an elderly man but did not stop. A shoe had previously been thrown at Ahmadinejad at Amir Kabir University in 2006.
• 17 March: Canadian protesters in Calgary used shoes as props during their demonstrations, even going so far as to create a "shoe cannon".
• April: A schoolteacher hurled a slipper at Indian National Congress Lok Sabha candidate Naveen Jindal.
• April: Some shareholders in Fortis bank threw their shoes at executives in Ghent, Belgium, in opposition to the decision to sell part of the bank to BNP Paribas.
• 7 April: India's Home Minister P. Chidambaram was shoed by Jarnail Singh, a Sikh journalist who works at the Hindi daily Dainik Jagaran. Chidamabaram was asked a question by Jarnail Singh on the Central Bureau of Investigation's clean chit to Congress leader Jagdish Tytler on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. He said that CBI was not under the home ministry, and no ministry of the government had put any pressure on the CBI. He said that "It is for the court to accept or reject or ask for further investigation by CBI. Let us wait for the court decision". When Jarnail Singh persisted with his questions, Chidambaram told him "no arguments, you are using this forum". Following this the journalist lobbed his shoe saying 'I protest'. Thrown underhand with little force, the shoe narrowly missed hitting Chidambaram. The action caused a flutter in the hall. Chidambaram responded to the situation in a composed manner and said that the journalist should be removed from the press conference hall gently. Chidambaram said to the reporters, "let not the action of one emotional person hijack the entire press conference. I have answered his questions to the best of my ability." After the incident, Singh said that he was sorry for the method of protest he adopted, but issue is right. He added that he felt upset that the government had not done justice in the anti-Sikh riots. Singh also appealed to journalists and others not to repeat his actions. Asked if he could have used some other manner to protest, "For the last 25 years this has been happening. So what other method is left ", Jarnail Singh said. Jarnail Singh was let off without any charges on the insistence of Chidambaram. The whole incident set off a major media feeding frenzy with 24x7 TV coverage and snowballed into a major election issue which embarrassed Congress politically. The police said that no complaint was lodged with them, and Chidambaram said that the journalist should be forgiven. A few Sikh bodies came out in Singh's support and even offered rewards. The shoe throwing incident also sparked off widespread protests by Sikhs against the CBI which had given a clean chit to Tytler. After the shoe throwing incident, Congress calculated politically that all the media controversy created could make it lose many seats especially in Punjab. Fearing further controversy, Congress dropped both Tytler and Sajjan Kumar as congress candidates from Lok Sabha 2009 elections.
• 16 April: Indian Leader of Opposition and Prime Ministerial candidate of National Democratic Alliance L K Advani was shoed by his own party member, Pawas Agarwal, a former district vice-president of Bharatiya Janata Party Katni Town in Madhya Pradesh.
• 26 April: During an election rally, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came under a shoe attack in Ahmedabad. A 28-year-old man made an attempt to throw a shoe at Singh while he was addressing the rally. The shoe landed a few meters away from Singh. Soon after the incident took place, the shoe thrower was taken away by police. Singh asked the police not to file any charges. The incident was condemned by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and was called an "unestablished way of protesting against democracy."
• 1 October: A student threw a shoe at the director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, as he addressed a university in Istanbul, Turkey. The shoe did not hit Strauss-Khan but landed on the stage. The student, Selçuk Özbek, from the left-wing newspaper BirGün, was taken away by security as he shouted "IMF get out!" A female protestor was also escorted from the hall while others shouted, "Go away IMF, you're stealing money."
• 8 October A single shoe was hurled at Clifford May as a protest by a student named Muhammad Hussain, who was also the class representative of his class at Karachi University I.R. Dept. Pakistan.
• 23 October: Supporters of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threw their shoes at opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi as he visited Tehran during the 2009 Iranian election protests. A fight broke out between supporters of Ahmadinejad and Karroubi and one of the Ahmadinejad supporters threw a shoe at Karroubi, which hit him in the face and resulted in his turban falling off.
• November: a shoe was hurled at Gordana Čomić, Vice-President of the National Assembly of Serbia by Serbian Radical Party MP Gordana Pop-Lazić.
• 4 November Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard was delivering a speech about leadership in the new century at Cambridge University when an Australian student called him a racist before taking off his boot and throwing it in his direction.
• 1 December: Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who first shoed George W. Bush, was shoed himself in Paris by an exiled Iraqi journalist, who accused him of "working for dictatorship in Iraq". When he was being escorted out of the room, Al-Zaidi went back to him with his shoe to hit him back, striking him in the back of the head with the shoe. The incident occurred while al-Zaidi was speaking about his experiences during the Bush shoeing and its aftermath. Al-Zaidi later said, "He stole my technique."