On March 12, just one week before the sixth anniversary of the
war in Iraq, Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi was sentenced to three
years in prison for throwing his shoe at George W. Bush. CODEPINK
co-founder Medea Benjamin talked about the incident with Hero Anwar
Brzw, a Kurdish Iraqi woman who is getting her master's degree in
conflict transformation at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding,
Eastern Mennonite University.
MB: Al-Zaidi's action spawned a lively debate, even within
the peace movement, over whether throwing shoes is a violent act. As an
Iraqi and a student of non-violence, what is your opinion?
AB: I have thought about this a lot and have concluded that his
action was not a violent one. Al-Zaidi was simply trying to express the
humiliation and anguish that Iraqis have experienced since the start of
the occupation. He wanted to insult Bush in a symbolic way. He did not
want to kill or injure the president. There are plenty of other ways to
inflict harm, if that were his intention. As al-Zaidi said in his
trial, "What made me do it was the humiliation Iraq has been subjected
to due to the U.S. occupation and the murder of innocent people. I
wanted to restore the pride of the Iraqis in any way possible, apart
from using weapons.
Dr. Gene Sharp, a famous American writer on non-violent struggles,
says that insulting someone in power is a legitimate form of
non-violent resistance. One of his writings, called "Waging Nonviolent
Struggle: 20th Century Practice and 21st Century Potential," is a
collection of 198 methods of non-violent action. He groups these into
several categories, the first being non-violent protest and persuasion.
The methods in the first group are the kinds of things you can do if
you have little power or resources, because they are simple and easy.
Number 32 is called "taunting officials (mocking or insulting them)."
That is precisely what al-Zaidi did.
What if al-Zaidi had actually hit Bush with the shoe?
Even if the shoe hit Bush in the head, I would still consider it a
non-violent action. It wouldn't have really hurt; at most Bush would
have gotten a bump on his head. Remember, al-Zaidi's intention was to
insult, not hurt.
And of course, the harm that could be inflicted by a shoe cannot be
compared with harm inflicted by an unwarranted occupation that has
resulted in the deaths and displacement of millions of Iraqis. US
foreign policy is about killing, maiming, leaving orphans and widows,
destroying infrastructure. Throwing shoe is violent, you say? No. War
and occupation is violent.
So you consider this action non-violent, but was it appropriate, especially for a journalist who is supposed to be objective?
I have worked for an Iraqi NGO on peace-building. I, too, have felt
the effects of the occupation -- the violence that the invasion
unleashed, the daily humiliations of being second-class citizens in our
own country. Iraqi journalists have felt this as well. They have seen
firsthand the terrible destruction caused by U.S. soldiers. Many Iraqi
journalists have died in the violence and many have been imprisoned and
terribly abused by U.S. soldiers.
So it is normal that we would want to express our anger. Some Iraqis
express their anger through violent means, but that puts them on the
same level as the occupiers.
In general, journalists and NGO workers don't believe in violence.
But we also don't have to be passive or conform to the oppressors.
In Kathleen Fischer's book "Transforming Anger," she says "True
nonviolent resistance is not possible until we have learned to
acknowledge and express anger in healthy ways. Nonviolence is not the
same as suppressing an emotion because of fear, intimidation, or
censorship. We do not choose nonviolence because we are afraid to
fight."
We can and should continue resisting -- as al-Zaidi did. And I think
it takes more courage to resist oppression through non-violent actions
than picking up a gun.
There were many Americans who don't like Bush but were uncomfortable with this action because they saw it as rude.
If someone threw a shoe at Hitler, would people say it was rude? If
someone threw a shoe at Saddam Hussein, would someone say it was rude?
If New Yorkers were able to confront the people who carried out the
9/11 attacks, I don't think they would throw shoes at them; they would
probably kill them with their bare hands. And Osama Bin Laden killed a
lot less people than George Bush.
Would the American people prefer that we express our anger by
killing American soldiers? Would that be less rude? I don't think so.
But people in the United States should acknowledge that we are human
beings and we need a way to express our anger.
For other people, especially in the Arab world, al-Zaidi
immediately became a folk hero. YouTube videos of the incident have
been viewed millions of times. The company that made the shoes became
wealthy overnight. And al-Zaidi has received everything from job offers
to marriage proposals. Do you consider al-Zaidi a hero?
There are people all over the world who consider him a hero,
especially because his act countered the powerlessness that many Arabs
feel. I wouldn't call him a hero, though. I call him a non-violence
resister; I call him brave. And I certainly understand his anger, for I
am angry, too.
President Bush said in an interview that he thought al-Zaidi threw his shoes because he wanted to become famous.
That's ridiculous. He was prepared to die, if he had to. Instead of
attributing dishonest motives to al-Zaidi, Bush should ask himself why
someone would dare insult the leader of the most powerful country in
the world, knowing how serious the consequences could be.
Bush was a symbol for US foreign policy. We Iraqis have been the
victims of these policies for too many years, and we are fed up. The
American government supported Saddam in the 1980s during Iraq-Iran war;
it encouraged Saddam to invade Kuwait but then turned against him and
"liberated" Kuwait. Then the U.S. government imposed sanctions that
killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis, especially children.
Today, American troops have become the owners and we Iraqis are treated
like illegal intruders in our own country.
People in the United States have no idea what Iraqis have been
enduring, how much we have suffered from this invasion. That's why
al-Zaidi, when he threw his shoes, cried out: "This is for the widows,
the orphans and all those who have died in Iraq." He was doing it for
his people, not to become famous.
Bush said that thanks to the U.S. intervention, the
dictatorship of Saddam Hussein is gone and Iraq is a free country. And
of course, the Kurds were particularly brutalized by Saddam. As a Kurd,
aren't you grateful to George Bush for overthrowing Saddam?
The U.S. government has told too many lies to the American people
and the international community. Saying that the Kurdish people have
been happy with US occupation is one of those lies.
I agree that Saddam was a brutal dictator and yes, we Kurds were
victims of his brutality. I always dreamed about freeing ourselves from
his rule. We were happy to get rid of Saddam and many trusted the
United States and thought it would bring democracy. But then we saw our
country go from a dictatorship to an occupied nation.
Why should the cost of getting rid of Saddam be a US invasion and
occupation? Is that our only alternative? How can we accept the
presence of armed foreigners in the streets of our country? For years
they have been ordering us around us at checkpoints, breaking down our
doors in midnight raids, imprisoning our loved ones without cause and
torturing them. Should we thank Bush and the US government for that?
Besides, it was not the role of the United States to get rid of
Saddam. That was for us, the Iraqis. Many people around the world
didn't like Bush. But would Americans have wanted a foreign military to
invade their country to get rid of him? Would that be acceptable to
Americans? I don't think so.
What do you suggest that people do to support al-Zaidi?
It is absurd that al-Zaidi will spend three years in prison while
George Bush walks free. It is Bush who should be in prison for war
crimes.
I also fear for al-Zaidi's life if he remains in prison. He was
already tortured while the world spotlight was on him; imagine what
might happen when people have forgotten him. He could easily be killed
by government agents.
If Prime Minister Nouri Al-Malaki believed in democracy and human
rights, he would consider al-Zaidi's act an expression of free speech
and pardon him. If there is enough public pressure, that could happen.
People should sign petitions, and call the Iraqi Embassy in Washington
and the Iraqi Mission to the UN. It is only through public pressure
that he can be released.
