The Parts of the World Where Shoes Are Traditionally Seen as Especially Unclean
Another example of cultural differences when it comes to the significance of shoes can be seen in historic Ghana. There, most people went about barefoot, but ritual dictated that the king always had to wear sandals. There was a taboo against monarch ever touching the earth, because if he did, he would lose his status. In much of Asia, shoes have long been considered particularly unclean. In many Asian countries, people do not enter homes with their shoes, but leave them at the doorstep. In Islamic culture, footwear is left at mosque entrances because of the association of shoes with uncleanliness. Accordingly, they are removed in the presence of God to show respect and submission.
Shoe soles are particularly repugnant in the Middle East. There, it is offensive to show others one’s shoe sole, and to throw footwear at or hit somebody with it is a grave insult. Sultana Shajar al Durr, a woman who ruled Egypt starting in 1250, had her reign cut short in 1257 when her maids beat her to death with their slippers. The sultana’s enemies were not only pleased at her demise, but took extra satisfaction from the manner of her death, inflicted by offensive shoes. The Middle Eastern belief that shoes are ritually unclean is still around. In an infamous 2008 incident, an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at President George W. Bush in a Baghdad press conference, to express his disgust with him. Elsewhere in the world, however, as seen below, throwing shoes at people is seen as a good thing.