Oriana Fallaci

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Oriana Fallaci (June 29, 1929 – September 15, 2006) was an Italian journalist, author, and political interviewer. She died in her native Florence, Italy, at age 77.

She was called "our most celebrated female writer" by Ferruccio De Bortoli, former director of the newspaper Corriere della Sera. Decades ago, the Los Angeles Times described her as "the journalist to whom virtually no world figure would say no."^[1]

As a young journalist, she interviewed many internationally known leaders and celebrities such as Henry Kissinger, the Shah of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, Lech Wałęsa, Willy Brandt, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Walter Cronkite, Muammar al-Gaddafi, Federico Fellini, Sammy Davis Jr, Deng Xiaoping, Nguyen Cao Ky, Yasir Arafat, Indira Gandhi, Alexandros Panagoulis, Wernher von Braun, Archbishop Makarios, Golda Meir, Nguyen Van Thieu, Haile Selassie and Sean Connery.

Following an interview with Ayatollah Khomeini she authored a book, titled "Ayatollah", which is forbidden to be published inside Iran.

After retirement, she authored a series of articles and books that roused controversy amongst certain Islamic and Arab factions.

She spent the last years of her life in New York, where she lived for several years with lung and breast cancer, which she referred to as "the Other One" in her most recent books. She returned to Italy before dying of cancer in a hospital in her native Florence on the night between the 14th and the 15th of September 2006.^[2][3]

Contents 1 Career 2 Controversy 3 Awards 4 Books by Oriana Fallaci 5 See also 6 References 7 External links 7.1 Websites 7.2 Obituaries 7.3 Articles by Fallaci 7.4 Articles about Fallaci

[edit] Career

Fallaci was born in Florence. During World War II she joined the resistance despite her youth, in the democratic armed group "Giustizia e Libertà".

Her father Edoardo Fallaci, a cabinet maker in Florence, was a political activist struggling to put an end to the dictatorship of Fascist leader Benito Mussolini. It was during this period that Fallaci was first exposed to the atrocities of war.

Fallaci began her journalistic career in her teens, becoming a special correspondent for the paper Il mattino dell'Italia centrale in 1950. Starting in 1967 she worked as a war correspondent, in Vietnam, during the Indo-Pakistani War, in the Middle East, and in South America. For many years, Fallaci was a special correspondent for the political magazine L'Europeo, and wrote for a number of leading newspapers and Epoca magazine.

During the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre prior to the 1968 Summer Olympics, Fallaci was shot three times, dragged down stairs by her hair, and left for dead by Mexican armed forces. Later, her recollection of the events would shift. According to The New Yorker, her former support of the student activists "devolved into a dislike of Mexicans."^[4]

In the 1970s, she had an affair with the subject of one of her interviews, Alexandros Panagoulis, who had been a solitary figure in the Greek resistance against the 1967 dictatorship. He had been captured, violently tortured, and imprisoned for his (unsuccessful) assassination attempt against dictator and ex-Colonel Georgios Papadopoulos. Panagoulis died in 1976, under controversial circumstances, in a road accident. Fallaci maintained that Panagoulis was assassinated by remnants of the Greek military junta, and her book Un Uomo (A Man) (ISBN 0-671-25241-0) was inspired by the life of Panagoulis.

During her infamous 1972 interview with Henry Kissinger, Kissinger agreed that the Vietnam War was a "useless war" and compared himself to "the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse." Kissinger later wrote that it was "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press."

Fallaci twice received the St. Vincent Prize for journalism, as well as the Bancarella Prize, 1971 for Nothing, and So Be It; Viareggio Prize, 1979, for Un uomo: Romanzo; and Prix Antibes, 1993, for Inshallah.. She received a D.Litt. from Columbia College (Chicago).

In previous years, she lectured at the University of Chicago, Yale University, Harvard University, and Columbia University.

Fallaci’s early writings have been translated into 21 languages including English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Greek, Serbian, Swedish, Polish, Croatian and Slovenian.

Fallaci donated most of her books and private papers to the Lateran University, according to Bishop Rino Fisichella because of her great respect for Pope Benedict himself.^[5]

[edit] Controversy

A journalist from Florence, Tiziano Terzani, expressed disagreements with her approach in an open letter to her in Corriere della Sera while David Holcberg at the Ayn Rand Institute supported her cause with a letter to The Washington Times.^[6]

Fallaci received support from rightist political parties and movements such as the Lega Nord in Italy, where her books have sold over 1 million copies alone, but also from individuals and organisations in the rest of the world.^[7][8]

At the first European Social Forum, which was held in Florence in November 2002, Fallaci invited the people of Florence to cease commercial operations and stay home. Furthermore, she compared the ESF to the Nazi occupation of Florence. Protest organizers declared "We have done it for Oriana, because she hasn't spoken in public for the last 12 years, and hasn't been laughing in the last 50".^[9]

In 2002 in Switzerland the Islamic Center and the Somal Association of Geneva, SOS Racisme of Lausanne, along with a private citizen, sued her for the supposedly racist content of The Rage and The Pride.^[10][11] In November 2002 a Swiss judge issued an arrest warrant for violations of article 261 and 261 bis of the Swiss criminal code and requested the Italian government to either trial or extradite her. Roberto Castelli, Italian minister of Justice mentioned this fact in an interview broadcast by Radio Padania affirming that the Constitution of Italy protects freedom of speech and thus the extradition request had to be rejected; the episode is mentioned in her book The Force of Reason.^[12]

In May 2005, Adel Smith, president of the Union of Italian Muslims, launched a lawsuit against Fallaci charging that "some of the things she said in her book The Force of Reason are offensive to Islam." Smith's attorney, Matteo Nicoli, cited a phrase from the book that refers to Islam as "a pool that never purifies." Consequently an Italian judge ordered her to stand trial set for June 2006 in Bergamo on charges of "defaming Islam." A previous prosecutor had sought dismissal of the charges. The preliminary trial began on 12 June in Bergamo and on 25 June Judge Beatrice Siccardi decided that Oriana Fallaci should indeed stand trial beginning on 18 December.^[13] Fallaci accused the judge of having disregarded the fact that Smith called for her murder and defamed Christianity. [1]

On June 3, 2005, Fallaci published on the front page of the Italian daily newspaper a highly controversial article entitled "Noi Cannibali e i figli di Medea" ("We cannibals and Medea's offspring") inviting women not to vote for a public referendum about artificial insemination that was held on June 12 and 13, 2006.^[14]

On August 27, 2005, Fallaci had a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo. Although an atheist [2],Fallaci had great respect for Pope Benedict XVI and expressed admiration for his 2004 essay titled "If Europe Hates Itself".^[15]

[edit] Awards

On November 30, 2005, Oriana Fallaci received the Center for the Study of Popular Culture’s Annie Taylor Award in New York. She was honored for her "heroism and valor" that made of her "a symbol of struggle against oppression and fascism". Since 9/11, Fallaci had dedicated herself in the fight against "the greatest threat to Western civilization since the Cold War, Islamofascism".^[16]

On December 8, 2005, the writer received the Ambrogino d'oro, the most prestigious award of the city of Milan.

On December 14, 2005, she was awarded, upon proposal of Education minister Letizia Moratti of the Berlusconi cabinet, with a gold medal for her cultural efforts ("benemerita della cultura") by the President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. Because of the writer's serious health condition, she couldn't travel to Italy. She sent a message stating (translated from Italian):

“

The gold medal moves me because it gratifies my hard work of writer and journalist, my engagement to the defense of our culture, my love for my Country and for Freedom. My well-known health condition prevents me to travel and to withdraw personally an award that, for me, a woman not accustomed to medals and to trophies, has an intense ethical and moral meaning.

”

This award also generated controversy, and anti-racist organizations sponsored a petition against the award.^[17]

On February 22, 2006, the president of the regional council of Tuscany, Riccardo Nencini awarded Oriana Fallaci a gold medal. Nencini explained that the writer is a symbol of Tuscany's culture in the world. [3]

The weblog Little Green Footballs has named its yearly "anti-idiotarian" award after Fallaci.

[edit] Books by Oriana Fallaci

• A Man, a novel telling the biography of Alexandros Panagoulis, who fought against the Regime of the Colonels in Greece.(1979) ISBN 84-279-3854-3
• The Seven Sins of Hollywood preface by Orson Welles, Longanesi (Milan), 1958.
• The Useless Sex: Voyage around the Woman Horizon Press (New York City), 1961.
• Penelope at War (1962).
• Limelighters (1963)
• The Egotists: Sixteen Surprising Interviews (1963)
• Quel giorno sulla Luna (1970)
• Inshallah, a fictional account of Italian troops stationed in Lebanon in 1983.
• If the Sun Dies, about the US space program.
• Interview With History (1976, a collection of interviews with various political figures.
• Letter to a Child Never Born, a fictional dialogue between a mother and her unborn child.
• Nothing, and so be it, report on the Vietnam war based on personal experiences.
• Oriana Fallaci intervista Oriana Fallaci, Fallaci interviews herself on the subject of "Eurabia" and "Islamofascism". (Milan: Corriere della Sera, August 2004).
• The Rage and The Pride (La Rabbia e l'Orgoglio, 2001) ISBN 0-8478-2504-3.
• The Force of Reason (La Forza della Ragione, 2004) ISBN 0-8478-2753-4
• Oriana Fallaci intervista sé stessa - L'Apocalisse (in Italian). An update of the interview with herself. A new, long epilogue is added. Publisher: Rizzoli, November 2004.

Fallaci has also written essays and novels revolving around news events.

[edit] See also

• Robert Spencer
• Steve Emerson
• Daniel Pipes
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] Websites

• Oriana Fallaci journalist, interviewer and author
• The End Of Free Speech Website dedicated to defending Oriana Fallaci.
• European Homepage for Oriana Fallaci

[edit] Obituaries

• Italian Writer Oriana Fallaci Dies at 77 Obituary published by the Associated Press.
• A tribute by Michael Leeden
• Remembering Oriana Fallaci - The Largest Tribute In The Blogosphere
• Oriana Fallaci, R.I.P., and the Religion of Perpetual Outrage by Michelle Malkin September 15, 2006
• Fallaci, Italian journalist who stirred controversy, dies at 76 by John Hooper, The Guardian
• Orianna Fallaci: She Hated, But She Was Hot by Jeff Sharlet, The Revealer

[edit] Articles by Fallaci

• Rage & Pride by Oriana Fallaci, English translation by Letizia Grasso, from the four-page essay "La Rabbia e l'Orgoglio", that appeared in Italy's leading newspaper Corriere della Sera on September 29, 2001. (Note that the official edition by Rizzoli, is translated by Fallaci herself)
• Rage and Pride, as translated by Chris Knipp.
• On Jew-Hatred in Europe, by Columnist Oriana Fallaci, IMRA - Thursday, April 25, 2002 (Originally published in Italian in the Panorama magazine, April 17, 2002).
• The Force Of Reason Excerpted portions of The Force Of Reason.
• Oriana's last article (in Italian)

[edit] Articles about Fallaci

• The Slow Suicide of the West by Jorge Majfud
• Oriana Fallaci: Words, Power, And Style Short bio by Jill M. Duquaine, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (1996)
• Rage and Pride Ignites a Firestorm On the reception of "Rage and Pride" By Michael San Filippo, guide to Italian Language at about.com (2002)
• You Are Wrong, Ms Fallaci by Amir Taheri of Benador Associates, a New York-based think-tank (2002)
• Prophet of Decline: An interview with Oriana Fallaci by Tunku Varadarajan in the Wall Street Journal (2005)
• Woman of the Year: Oriana Fallaci (2005)
• The Agitator: Oriana Fallaci directs her fury toward Islam by Margaret Talbot in The New Yorker (29 May 2006
• Oriana Fallaci--The Enjoyment of Hate by Judy Harris in ZNet (September 17, 2006)
• Roman Candle: Oriana Fallaci sheds heat and light. by David Harsanyi in Weekly Standard.