Journalist Who Threw Shoes at George W Bush is Running For Parliament in Iraq

Kabul: Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who gained international attention in 2008 after he famously threw his shoes at the then American President George Bush, is now running for Parliament in Iraq.

The journalist, who had then been working with an Egyptian television channel called Al-Baghdadia, recently tweeted that he was running for the Iraq’s Parliament, called the Council of Representatives, ahead of the Iraqi Presidential elections, scheduled to be held on May 12, Buzzfeed reported.

A decade ago, Zaidi was caught on tape yelling, “this is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog,” in Arabic as he flung the first shoe, and then yelling, "this is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq," as he flung the second shoe at the then POTUS. Bush, who had been speaking to Iraqi media at a ‘farewell’ conference in Baghdad, along with the then Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, had to duck twice to avoid getting hit by the projectile shoes.

Zaidi was tackled by Maliki’s guards and arrested for attacking a visiting official. He was released within 9 months for good behaviour. According to reports, the journalist had claimed to have been tortured when he was in detention after the attack.

He returned to Iraq in 2011 and has maintained a low profile since then, working on his charity foundation, which was set up to support the children of those killed in war and militancy. In a piece written by the journalist for the Guardian, Zaidi had said, “I am no hero. I just acted as an Iraqi who witnessed the pain and bloodshed of too many innocents."

In 2009, a gigantic shoe monument was erected in the Iraqi town of Tikrit in honour of the journalist.