Meet Oriana Fallaci: The Italian Journalist Who Removed Her Chador in Front of Iran’s First Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, and Told Him, “I’m Going to Take Off This Stupid, Medieval Rag Right Now”

Key Points:

IN 1979, IRAN’S MONARCHY WAS TOPPLED, and thus began the era of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with Ruhollah Mostafavi Khomeini becoming the first Supreme Leader of the Middle Eastern country. Ever since the Iranian Revolution, one factor that has been constantly studied and compared with the regime of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, is the rights of Iranian women. 

At the beginning of Khomeini’s regime, it was mandated that all Iranian women wear the hijab. Iran’s regime change is often referred to as the process through which the country was Islamized.

Today, Iran’s laws do not allow women to leave the country without their husband’s permission, and girls are mandated to wear the hijab from the age of seven. Now, imagine a female journalist removing her chador right in front of the Supreme Leader. Seems fictional? The incident dates back to 1979, when a Western journalist named Oriana Fallaci dared to do something that cannot be fathomed by anyone. 

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Who is Oriana Fallaci?

An often-used word to describe the personality of Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci is “controversial.” Given her legacy as a journalist, she is remembered as a courageous Italian journalist who never feared expressing her opinion, no matter what or to whom. The Guardian referred to Oriana Fallaci in its obituary, published 20 years ago in 2006, as an “Islamophobe” who once said that “Muslims breed like rats.”

Oriana Fallaci was born in Florence, Italy, in 1929. She became a journalist at the young age of 16, a career she pursued to finance her studies. She also reported on the Vietnam War (1954–75). In addition to the Vietnam War, Fallaci had experience reporting on conflicts in Latin America, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. She worked as a special correspondent for the Italian newspaper Il Mattino dell'Italia Centrale and the political magazine L'Europeo. 

Her stories of valor took a drastic turn when she was shot three times in 1968. It was during the Tlatelolco massacre, when thousands of students protested in Mexico City just days before the Olympics, that the situation went haywire after Mexican soldiers opened fire on the protesters. Oriana Fallaci was shot three times but survived despite sustaining serious injuries. 

From starting her career by conducting celebrity interviews to later interviewing former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Israel’s first and only female Prime Minister Golda Meir, former Emperor of Ethiopia Haile Selassie, and others, Fallaci went on to become one of the most prominent journalists of her time. But her interview with Ruhollah Mostafavi Khomeini was often referred to as a symbol of extraordinary courage. 

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When Oriana Fallaci Interviewed Khomeini

According to a digital archive of The New York Times during Oriana Fallaci’s interview with the first Supreme Leader of Iran, she asked about the chador, which she had been asked to wear for the interview. A chador is a long garment that covers the entire body, leaving only the face exposed.

Fallaci bluntly asked Khomeini why he insisted that Iranian women “hide themselves” by wearing “uncomfortable and absurd garments.” Fallaci also credited the women who contributed to the Iranian Revolution and told Khomeini, “They fought just like the men, were imprisoned and tortured.” Khomeini replied, “The women who contributed to the revolution were, and are, women with the Islamic dress, not elegant women all made up like you, who go around all uncovered, dragging behind them a tail of men.”

 He stated that women who did not wear Islamic dress were not useful and added that they distracted men. Talking about the inequality faced by Iranian women, Fallaci asked Khomeini, “How do you swim in a chador?” 

Khomeini told Fallaci to mind her own business and said, “If you do not like Islamic dress, you are not obliged to wear it. Because Islamic dress is for good and proper young women.” What happened next was so shocking that it eventually became one of the career-defining moments of Fallaci’s career. She removed her chador right in front of Khomeini and said, “And since you said so, I'm going to take off this stupid, medieval rag right now.” 

Oriana Fallaci died in 2006 and is remembered for her controversial views on Islam. She is still regarded as one of the courageous journalists of the West. She was the woman who removed her chador in front of the first Supreme Leader of Iran as an act of resistance. She was Oriana Fallaci. 

(Edited by Harsh Pandey)

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