Daily Times

It is seventeen years since US bombs started to rain on Baghdad. The illegal US-led 2003 invasion caused more than 150,000 deaths, cost trillions of dollars and its repercussions continue to have serious effects across the region, on foreign policy and on thousands of families.

Working for Al-Baghdadia TV, Al-Zaidi made headlines by hurling his shoes at Bush in Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki’s official residence. “This is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog,” he yelled in Arabic as he threw the first shoe. “This is from the widows, the orphans, and those who were killed in Iraq,” he added with the second.

The video of the incident is iconic. Nevertheless, Al-Zaidi was convicted of assaulting a foreign leader and imprisoned, unaware of the impact of his protest. He was held in solitary confinement in a tiny cell for three months.

Now 39, Al-Zaidi served a total of nine months in prison. He alleges that he was tortured by Iraqi security officers. His early release was down to good behaviour. Solitary confinement haunts him to this day, and he habitually spreads his arms to measure room sizes and compare them with the size of his cell.

After his release from prison, Al-Zaidi quit journalism and moved to Geneva and then Beirut, where he set up a humanitarian organisation to help victims of the Iraq war. The intention was to help build orphanages and medical centres offering free treatment to those affected by the war.

Muntadhar Al-Zaidi wants people to remember that he did not stay silent against the oppressor, against the occupation of his country and the killing of his people. “I hope people around the world will continue to fight against injustice. If I was able to go back in time, I would throw my shoes at George W Bush again. My wish is to see him and everyone who occupied Iraq in prison one day.”