Oriana Fallaci (Italian:[oˈrjaːnafalˈlaːtʃi]; 29 June 1929 – 15 September 2006) was an Italianjournalist and author. A member of theItalian resistance movement duringWorld War II, she had a long and successful journalistic career. Fallaci became famous worldwide for her coverage of war and revolution, and her "long, aggressive and revealing interviews" with many world leaders during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.[1]
Whether it comes from a despotic sovereign or an elected president, from a murderous general or a beloved leader, I see power as an inhuman and hateful phenomenon ... I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born.[5]
After attaining her secondary school diploma, Fallaci briefly attended theUniversity of Florence where she studied medicine and chemistry. She later transferred to literature but soon dropped out and never finished her studies. Her uncle Bruno Fallaci, himself a journalist, suggested that Fallaci pursue a career injournalism.[6] Fallaci began her career in journalism during her teens, becoming a special correspondent for the Italian paperIl mattino dell'Italia centrale in 1946.[7] Beginning in 1967, she worked as awar correspondent covering the Vietnam War, theIndo-Pakistani War, theMiddle East, and inSouth America.
For many years, Fallaci was a special correspondent for the political magazineL'Europeo, and wrote for a number of leading newspapers and the magazineEpoca. InMexico City, during the 1968Tlatelolco massacre, Fallaci was shot three times by Mexican soldiers, dragged downstairs by her hair, and left for dead. Her eyewitness account became important evidence disproving the Mexican government's denials that a massacre had taken place.[8]
In the 1960s she began conducting interviews, first with people in the world of literature and cinema (published in book form in 1963 asGli antipatici) and later with world leaders (published in the 1973 bookIntervista con la storia), which have led some to describe her as "during the 1970s and 80s the most famous – and feared – interviewer in the world".[9][10][11]
During her 1972 interview with Henry Kissinger, Kissinger stated that theVietnam War was a "useless war" and compared himself to "the cowboy who leads the wagon train by riding ahead alone on his horse".[12] Kissinger later claimed that it was "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press".[13] In 1973, she interviewedMohammad Reza Pahlavi.[14] She later stated, "He considers women simply as graceful ornaments, incapable of thinking like a man, and then strives to give them complete equality of rights and duties".[14] After interviewingSheikh Mujibur Rahman, she described him as "One of the most stupid men I've ever met in my life, maybe the most stupid".[15]
During her 1979 interview withAyatollah Khomeini, she addressed him as a "tyrant", and managed to unveil herself from thechador:
OF: I still have to ask you a lot of things. About the "chador", for example, which I was obliged to wear to come and interview you, and which you impose on Iranian women.... I am not only referring to the dress, but to what it represents, I mean the apartheid Iranian women have been forced into after the revolution. They cannot study at the university with men, they cannot work with men, they cannot swim in the sea or in a swimming-pool with men. They have to do everything separately, wearing their "chador". By the way, how can you swim wearing a "chador"?
AK: None of this concerns you, our customs do not concern you. If you don't like the Islamic dress, you are not obliged to wear it, since it is for young women and respectable ladies.
OF: Very kind (of you). Since you tell me that, I'm going to immediately rid myself of this stupid medieval rag. There![16]
In 1980 Fallaci interviewedDeng Xiaoping.[17][18]Michael Rank described this interview as the "most revealing ever of any Chinese leader by any western journalist", during which Deng spoke aboutMao "extraordinarily frankly by Chinese standards" whereas most Western interviews with Chinese leaders have been "bland and dull".[19]
After the terrorist attacks of11 September 2001, Fallaci wrote three books critical ofIslamic extremists andIslam in general, and in both writing and interviews warned that Europe was "too tolerant ofMuslims". The first book wasThe Rage and the Pride (initially a four-page article inCorriere della Sera, the major national newspaper in Italy). In this book, she calls for the destruction of what is now called Islam.[21]
She wrote that the "sons of Allah breed like rats", and in aWall Street Journal interview in 2005, she said that Europe was no longer Europe but "Eurabia".[1]The Rage and the Pride andThe Force of Reason both became bestsellers, the former selling over one million copies in Italy and 500,000 in the rest of Europe,[22] and are considered part of the "Eurabia genre".[23] Her third book in the same vein,Oriana Fallaci intervista sé stessa – L'Apocalisse ("The Apocalypse"), sold some two million copies globally,[24] the three books together selling four million copies in Italy.[25]
On 27 August 2005, Fallaci had a private audience withPope Benedict XVI atCastel Gandolfo. Although an atheist,[26] Fallaci reportedly had great respect for the Pope and expressed admiration for his 2004 essay titled "If Europe Hates Itself".[27][28] Despite being an atheist, inThe Force of Reason, she claimed that she was also a "Christian atheist".[29][30] Fallaci was a vocal critic of Islam, especially after theIranian Revolution and theSeptember 11 attacks in 2001. When rumours of the construction of an Islamic centre in the city ofSiena intensified, Fallaci toldThe New Yorker "If the Muslims build this Islamic center, she will blow it up with the help of her friends".[21]
As of 2018, streets or squares have been renamed after her inPisa,Arezzo, andGenoa.[31] A public garden has also been dedicated to her inSesto San Giovanni, an industrial town close toMilan.[31]
In July 2019, thelower chamber of the Italian Parliament approved the creation of low-denomination treasury bills that could also be used as ade facto parallel currency to theeuro. According to the plan's main proponent, theLeague's MPClaudio Borghi, the 20-euro bill should bear a picture of Fallaci.[31]
An Italian television series was created about her life, titledMiss Fallaci (2024).[32]
On 30 November 2005, in New York City, Fallaci received theAnnie Taylor Award for courage from theCenter for the Study of Popular Culture. She was honoured for the "heroism and the values" that rendered her "a symbol of the fight againstIslamic fascism and a knight of the freedom of humankind". The Annie Taylor Award is annually awarded to people who have demonstrated unusual courage in adverse conditions and great danger.David Horowitz, founder of the center, described Fallaci as "a General in the fight for freedom". On 8 December 2005, Fallaci was awarded the Ambrogino d'oro (Golden Ambrogino), the highest recognition of the city ofMilan.[34] She also received theJan Karski Eagle Award.[35]
Acting on a proposal by the Minister of EducationLetizia Moratti, on 14 December 2005, thepresident of the ItalianRepublic,Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, awarded Fallaci a gold medal for her cultural contributions (Benemerita della Cultura). The state of her health prevented her from attending the ceremony. She wrote in a speech: "This gold medal moves me because it gratifies my efforts as writer and journalist, my front line engagement to defend our culture, love for my country and for freedom. My current well-known health situation prevents me from travelling and receiving in person this gift that for me, a woman not used to medals and not too keen on trophies, has an intense ethical and moral significance."[36]
On 12 February 2006, the president of Tuscany,Riccardo Nencini, awarded Fallaci a gold medal from the Council of Tuscany. Nencini reported that the prize was awarded as Fallaci wasa beacon of Tuscan culture in the world.[citation needed] During the award ceremony, held in New York City on February 21, 2006, the writer talked about her attempt to create acaricature ofMohammed, following the polemic relating to similar caricatures that had appeared inFrench andDutch newspapers. She declared: "I will draw Mohammed with his 9 wives, including the little baby he married when 70 years old, the 16 concubines, and a female camel wearing a Burqa. So far my pencil stopped at the image of the camel, but my next attempt will surely be better."[37][38]
Fallaci received criticism as well as support in Italy, where her books have sold over one million copies.[41][42] At the firstEuropean Social Forum, which was held inFlorence in November 2002, Fallaci invited the people of Florence to cease commercial operations and stay home. Furthermore, she compared the ESF to theNazi occupation ofFlorence. 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".[43]
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 bookThe Force of Reason are offensive to Islam". Smith's attorney cited 18 phrases, most notably a reference to Islam as "a pool that never purifies".[47][48] Consequently, an Italian judge ordered Fallaci to stand trial inBergamo on charges of "defaming Islam". The preliminary trial began on 12 June, and on 25 June, Judge Beatrice Siccardi decided that Fallaci should indeed stand trial beginning on 18 December.[49] Fallaci accused the judge of having disregarded the fact that Smith had called for her murder and defamed Christianity.[50]
In France, some Arab-Muslim and anti-defamation organisations such asMRAP andLigue des Droits de l'Homme launched lawsuits against Oriana Fallaci, charging thatThe Rage and the Pride andThe Force of Reason (La Rage et l'Orgueil andLa Force de la Raison in their French translations) were "offensive to Islam" and "racist".[48] Her lawyer,Gilles William Goldnadel,[51] president of the France-Israel Organization, was alsoAlexandre del Valle's lawyer during similar lawsuits against del Valle.
On 3 June 2005, Fallaci published on the front page of theCorriere della Sera a highly controversial article titled "Noi Cannibali e i figli diMedea" ("We cannibals and Medea's offspring"), urging women not to vote for a publicreferendum aboutartificial insemination that was held on 12 and 13 June 2006.[52]
In her 2004 bookOriana Fallaci intervista sé stessa – L'Apocalisse, Fallaci expressed her opposition tosame-sex marriage, arguing that it "subvert[s] the biological concept of family" and calling it "a fashionable whim, a form of exhibitionism", and also againstparenting by same-sex couples, declaring it a "distorted view of life". She also asserted the existence of a "gay lobby", through which "the homosexuals themselves are discriminating against others".[53]
In the June 2006 issue ofReason,American libertarian writerCathy Young wrote: "Oriana Fallaci's 2002 bookThe Rage and the Pride makes hardly any distinction between radicalIslamic terrorists andSomalistreet vendors who supposedly urinate on the corners of Italy's great cities."Christopher Hitchens, writing inThe Atlantic, called the book "a sort of primer in how not to write about Islam", describing it as "replete with an obsessive interest in excrement, disease, sexual mania, and insect-like reproduction, insofar as these apply to Muslims in general and to Muslim immigrants in Europe in particular".[54]
Il sesso inutile, viaggio intorno alla donna,Rizzoli, Milan, 1961; Best BUR, 2014 (digital edition); English translation (Pamela Swinglehurst, tr.):The Useless Sex: Voyage around the Woman, New York: Horizon Press, 1964.
Penelope alla guerra, Milan: Rizzoli, 1962; Best BUR, 2014 (digital edition); English translation,Penelope at War, London: Michael Joseph, 1966, Pamela Swinglehurst, tr.
Se il Sole muore, Milan: Rizzoli, 1965; Best BUR, 2010 (digital edition); English translation (Pamela Swinglehurst, tr.):If the Sun Dies: New York, Atheneum Books, 1966, and London: Collins, 1967. About theUS space program.
Intervista con la storia, Milan: Rizzoli, 1974; Best BR, 2008 (digital edition); English translation (John Shepley, tr.):Interview with History, New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1976; London: Michael Joseph, 1976; Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977. A collection of interviews with sixteen political figures.
Lettera a un bambino mai nato, Milan: Rizzoli, 1975; Best BUR, 2014 (digital edition); English translation (John Shepley, tr.):Letter to a Child Never Born, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1976, and London: Arlington Books, 1976. A dialogue between a mother and her eventuallymiscarried child.
Un uomo: Romanzo, Milan: Rizzoli, 1979; Best BUR, 2010 (digital edition); English translation (William Weaver, tr.):A Man, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1980. A novel aboutAlexandros Panagoulis, aGreek revolutionary hero who fights alone and to the death for freedom and truth.
Insciallah, Milan: Rizzoli, 1990; Best BUR, 2014 (digital edition); English translation (by Oriana Fallaci, working from a translation by James Marcus):Inshallah, New York: Doubleday, 1992, and London: Chatto & Windus, 1992. A fictional account of Italian troops stationed inLebanon in 1983.
La Forza della ragione, Milan: Rizzoli, 2004; Best BUR, 2014 (digital edition); English translation:The Force of Reason, New York: Rizzoli International, 2004.ISBN0-8478-2753-4. A sequel toLa Rabbia e l'orgoglio (The Rage and the Pride).
Oriana Fallaci intervista Oriana Fallaci, Milan:Corriere della Sera, August 2004; not translated into English.[57] Fallaci interviews herself on the subject of "Eurabia" and "Islamofascism".
Un cappello pieno di ciliegie, Milan: Rizzoli, 2008; BURbig, 2010 (digital edition); not translated into English.[57] A novel about her ancestors, published two years after her death. Fallaci worked on it for ten years, until the 11 September attacks and her books inspired by them.
^The Guardian, most sources indicate Fallaci was born on 29 June, but some sources indicate 24 July
^"Oriana Fallaci Official site". Oriana-fallaci.com. Archived from the original on 11 February 2021. Retrieved24 April 2013.
^The New Yorker. F-R Publishing Corporation. 1975. p. 229.Out of that experience there came a literal xenophobia. ... Colonel George Papadopoulos, who became Prime Minister and later President under the junta, said his purpose was to recreate the Greece of the Christian Greeks — "Ellas Elllnon ...
^OF – La prego, Imam: devo chiederle ancora molte cose. Di questo "chador" a esempio, che mi hanno messo addosso per venire da lei e che lei impone alle donne,[...] non mi riferisco soltanto a un indumento ma a ciò che esso rappresenta: cioè la segregazione in cui le donne sono state rigettate dopo la Rivoluzione. Il fatto stesso che non possano studiare all'università con gli uomini, ad esempio, né lavorare con gli uomini, né fare il bagno in mare o in piscina con gli uomini. Devono tuffarsi a parte con il "chador". A proposito, come si fa a nuotare con il "chador"? AK – Tutto questo non la riguarda. I nostri costumi non vi riguardano. Se la veste islamica non le piace, non è obbligata a portarla. Perché la veste islamica è per le donne giovani e perbene. OF – Molto gentile. E, visto che mi dice così, mi tolgo subito questo stupido cencio da medioevo. Ecco fatto.Oriana Fallaci, intervista a Khomeini,Corriere della Sera, 26 September 1979
^"Questa medaglia d'oro mi commuove perché gratifica la mia fatica di scrittore e di giornalista, il mio impegno a difesa della nostra cultura, il mio amore per il mio Paese e per la Libertà. Le attuali e ormai note ragioni di salute mi impediscono di viaggiare e ritirare direttamente un omaggio che per me, donna poco abituata alle medaglie e poco incline ai trofei, ha un intenso significato etico e morale".
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 newspaperCorriere della Sera on 29 September 2001. (Note that the official edition by Rizzoli is translated by Fallaci herself)
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