Oriana Fallaci

Picture: AP Photo/Gianangelo Pistoia

Happy birthday to Italian born journalist Oriana Fallaci (1929-2006). Oriana Fallaci was an Italian journalist who became globally famous for her interviews with revolutionary leaders and heads of state during the 1960s and 1970s. Seated opposite Iran’s thenAyatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in his Qom home in 1979, Fallaci questioned the hardline leader about the treatment of women under their new harsh Islamist regime. ‘‘If you do not like Islamic dress, you are not obliged to wear it,’’ Khomeini snapped. Fallaci replied: ‘‘That’s very kind of you, Imam. And since you said so, I’m going to take off this stupid, medieval rag right now’’. Fallaci yanked off the chador (Islamic dress) she was forced to wear and Khomeini stormed off only to conclude the interview two days later. It was one of many controversial moves the independent journalist made during interviews with high profile leaders, which included United States secretary of state Henry Kissinger, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi at the height of their reigns. Fallaci was born into a workingclass family in northern Italy, where she began working as a journalist at 16. During her journalism career she also worked as a war correspondent in Vietnam, South America and the Middle East. Her interviews and articles appeared in newspapers and magazines across the world, including the Italian magazine L’Europeo, where she worked for 23 years. After the attacks on New York’s World Trade Centre in 2001 Fallaci courted controversy when she released three books that openly criticised Islam, arguing Europe was ‘‘too tolerant’’ of the religion. The heavy-smoking Fallaci died in 2006 aged 77, 10 years after being diagnosed with cancer.