Your gestures and gesticulations could be angering entire countries and cultures without you even realising it
THANKS TO IRAQI shoe thrower Muntander Al-Zaidi, the world at large now knows exactly what to do the next time someone gets our goat up in downtown Baghdad. Before the incident with George W Bush last week, when the journalist took off his shoes and threw them at the US President at a press conference in the Iraqi capital, few of us might have been up to date with the intricacies of international gestures of disgust. Not so any more.
Whether you’re headed for Mosul or Madrid, travel guides and regional histories will only get you so far. If you want to go truly native, you need to know how you can insult and offend your hosts at will.
Let’s start with the shoes. In Arab culture, you rarely if ever display the sole of your shoe to another human being. If sitting, shoe wearers are expected to keep their feet firmly on the ground. Never cross legs ankle on knee style. Shoes are considered unclean in ritual terms in the Muslim faith, reflected in the fact that wearing them inside a mosque is forbidden. Beyond the Islamic world, in many Asian countries, including India, pointing the sole of your foot at someone, whether sitting across from them at a dinner table or cross- legged on a deserted beach, is also looked upon as highly insulting. Therefore, throwing your grubby sole at a person, as witnessed this week, is considered an extreme insult.
What you are saying, in effect, is that the receiver is no better than the dirt on the ground. Ouch.
In Thailand, if you really want to insult someone, then touch them on the head with your shoe or sock. Similarly, patting someone on the head will also rile the natives no end.
In most countries, insulting gestures don’t move beyond the hands. For example, a V sign can quickly turn into something all the more insulting if a hand is turned or someone is standing behind you. If four fingers are thrust towards you in Japan, you can take it that your hosts are not exactly enamoured with your presence, whereas in Pakistan, a single raised closed fist has some unpleasant phallic connotations.
In the Philippines, if you curl one finger and use it to beckon someone, you are implying they are lower than a dog. Use it sparingly though: if you do this, the offended person can have you arrested and as part of the punishment have your finger broken.
Even the straightforward “thumbs-up” sign can get you into trouble. In parts of Africa, South America and Greece, the sign can have a negative meaning. The same in Iraq and Thailand, where it effectively means “up yours”. In Iran, the sign is known as “bilakh” and effectively means, “sit on this”. In India, anyone with the shakes after a heavy night should take extra care. Doing a thumbs-up and wagging your hand from side to side means you are telling someone you profoundly disagree with them.
In the US, a circle sign where the forefinger meets the thumb is generally taken as meaning “okay”. Not so in Turkey, Malta or Brazil where the sign means you are comparing someone to a part of their anatomy (guess which?).
One of my personal favourites originated from the Byzantines and is still in use in Greece today. The “moutza” is an open-palm gesture that refers to the ancient practice of visitors throwing excrement at chained prisoners. So sensitive are the Greeks to the sign, that any outward hand gesture is considered a cultural no-no.
The significance of last week’s gesture will not have been lost on George W Bush. In 2005, during his second inaugural parade, he held up a fist with the forefinger and little finger extended. It was a reference to a University of Texas team, the Longhorns, and meant “hook ’em horns”. But in the weeks following the gesture, he was publicly chided for the signal.
In Italy, it can imply a man is having an affair and is considered insulting.
Norwegians have a slightly different slant, with the gesture often used as a sign of the devil – a cultural inference President Bush will most certainly want to duck.
