Editing Oriana Fallaci (section)

== Career ==

=== Beginning as a journalist ===
After attaining her secondary school diploma, Fallaci briefly attended the [[University 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 in [[journalism]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.stylos.it/default.asp?artID=73 |title=Stylos: Agenzia di comunicazione giornalistica, letteraria, editoriale - Roma |access-date=11 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522033155/http://www.stylos.it/default.asp?artID=73 |archive-date=22 May 2015 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Fallaci began her career in journalism during her teens, becoming a special correspondent for the Italian paper ''Il mattino dell'Italia centrale'' in 1946.<ref>{{cite book|last=Arico|first=Santo L.|title=Oriana Fallaci: The Woman and the Myth|publisher=Southern Illinois University|year=1998|page=[https://archive.org/details/orianafallaciwom00aric_0/page/26 26]|isbn=0-8093-2153-X|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/orianafallaciwom00aric_0/page/26}}</ref> Beginning in 1967, she worked as a [[war correspondent]] covering the Vietnam War, the [[Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts|Indo-Pakistani War]], the [[Middle East]], and in [[South America]].

=== 1960s ===
For many years, Fallaci was a special correspondent for the political magazine ''[[L'Europeo]]'', and wrote for a number of leading newspapers and the magazine ''[[Epoca (magazine)|Epoca]]''. In [[Mexico City]], during the 1968 [[Tlatelolco 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.<ref name="newyorker">[https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/06/05/060605fa_fact "The Agitator: Oriana Fallaci directs her fury toward Islam"], [[Margaret Talbot]], ''[[The New Yorker]]'', 5 June 2006.</ref>

In the 1960s she began conducting interviews, first with people in the world of literature and cinema (published in book form in 1963 as ''Gli antipatici'') and later with world leaders (published in the 1973 book ''Intervista 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".<ref>Caroline Moorehead, [https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/speak-ill-of-everyone/ "Speak ill of everyone"], ''[[The Times Literary Supplement]]'', 22–29 December 2017. Retrieved 8 April 2020.</ref><ref>[https://www.thetimes.com/article/oriana-fallaci-738jdx5wgmf "Oriana Fallaci"], ''[[The Times]]'', 16 September 2006. Retrieved 8 April 2020.</ref><ref>Sylvia Poggioli, [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6089480 "Fallaci Shed Light on the World's Leaders"], [[National Public Radio]]. Retrieved 8 April 2020.</ref>

=== 1970s ===
In the early 1970s, Fallaci had a relationship with the subject of one of her interviews, [[Alexandros Panagoulis]], who had been a solitary figure in the Greek resistance against the [[military dictatorship]] known as the [[Regime of the Colonels]]. Panagoulis had been captured, heavily tortured and imprisoned for his (unsuccessful) [[Greek military junta of 1967–74|assassination attempt]] on dictator and former [[Hellenic Army]] colonel [[Georgios Papadopoulos]]. Panagoulis died in 1976, under controversial circumstances, in a road accident. Fallaci maintained that Panagoulis' "accident" had been arranged by remnants of the [[Greek military junta of 1967–74|Greek military junta]] despite the [[Metapolitefsi|transition to a democracy]], and her book [[A Man|''Un Uomo'' (''A Man'')]] was inspired by his life.{{cn|date=March 2025}}

During her 1972 interview with Henry Kissinger, Kissinger stated 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".<ref>Fallaci, Oriana. ''Interview with History'', p.40-41. Translated by John Shepley. 1976, Liveright Press. {{ISBN|0-87140-590-3}}</ref> Kissinger later claimed that it was "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press".<ref>{{cite news|author=Adam Bernstein|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/15/AR2006091501145_pf.html|title=Reporter-Provocateur Oriana Fallaci|newspaper= The Washington Post|date=15 September 2006|access-date=24 April 2013}}</ref> In 1973, she interviewed [[Mohammad Reza Pahlavi]].<ref name=cjer80>{{cite journal|last=Jerome|first=Carole|title=Back to the Veil|journal=New Internationalist|date=1 September 1980|issue=91|url=http://newint.org/features/1980/09/01/women/|access-date=3 August 2013}}</ref> 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".<ref name=cjer80 /> After interviewing [[Sheikh Mujibur Rahman]], she described him as "One of the most stupid men I've ever met in my life, maybe the most stupid".<ref>[https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/the-rolling-stone-interview-oriana-fallaci-19760617 ''Oriana Fallaci: The Rolling Stone Interview''], ''Rollingstone.com'' (June 17 1976).</ref>
[[File:Oriana Fallaci in Tehran 1979.jpg|thumb|Fallaci in [[Tehran]] (1979). To interview the Ayatollah [[Ruhollah Khomeini|Khomeini]], she was required to wear a [[chador]]. During the interview, she removed it and attacked the obligation of women to wear it.]]

During her 1979 interview with [[Ruhollah Khomeini|Ayatollah Khomeini]], she addressed him as a "tyrant", and managed to unveil herself from the [[chador]]:

{{quote|'''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"?<br />
'''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.<br />
'''OF:''' Very kind (of you). Since you tell me that, I'm going to immediately rid myself of this stupid medieval rag. There!<ref>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. {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20081017002159/http://www.oriana-fallaci.com/khomeini/intervista.html Oriana Fallaci, intervista a Khomeini, ''Corriere della Sera'', 26 September 1979]}}</ref>}}

=== 1980s ===
[[File:O. Fallaci 1 (Foto di GianAngelo Pistoia).jpg|thumb|Oriana Fallaci in 1987]]
In 1980 Fallaci interviewed [[Deng Xiaoping]].<ref>[http://en.people.cn/dengxp/vol2/text/b1470.html "Answers to the Italian Journalist Oriana Fallaci: August 21 and 23, 1980"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200129152051/http://en.people.cn/dengxp/vol2/text/b1470.html |date=29 January 2020 }}, ''[[People's Daily]]'', people.cn. Retrieved 7 April 2020.</ref><ref>Oriana Fallaci, [http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=472059 "Deng: Cleaning up Mao's mistakes"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829143815/http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=472059 |date=29 August 2019 }}, ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 31 August 1980, online clipping at digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu. Retrieved 7 April 2020.</ref> [[Michael Rank (author)|Michael Rank]] described this interview as the "most revealing ever of any Chinese leader by any western journalist", during which Deng spoke about [[Mao Zedong|Mao]] "extraordinarily frankly by Chinese standards" whereas most Western interviews with Chinese leaders have been "bland and dull".<ref>Michael Rank, [https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/sep/19/guardianobituaries.mainsection "Oriana Fallaci"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 19 September 2006. Retrieved 7 April 2020.</ref>

=== Retirement ===
Living in [[New York City]] and in a house she owned in [[Tuscany]], Fallaci lectured at the [[University of Chicago]], [[Yale University]], [[Harvard University]] and [[Columbia University]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lg364v_RmvkC&pg=PA216|title=Fighting Suicide Bombing: A Worldwide Campaign for Life|first=Israel|last=Chamy|publisher=Greenwood|year=2007|isbn=978-0-275-99336-8|access-date=10 February 2016}}</ref>

=== After 9/11 ===
After [[September 11 attacks|11 September 2001]], Fallaci wrote three books critical of [[Islamism|Islamic extremists]] and [[Islam]] in general, and in both writing and interviews warned that Europe was "too tolerant of [[Muslim]]s". The first book was ''[[The Rage and the Pride]]'' (initially a four-page article in ''[[Corriere della Sera]]'', the major national newspaper in Italy). In this book, she calls for the destruction of what is now called Islam.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Oriana Fallaci, Incisive Italian Journalist, Is Dead at 77|newspaper=The New York Times|date=16 September 2006|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/books/16fallaci.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180317134742/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/16/books/16fallaci.html|archive-date=17 March 2018|url-status=live|last1=Fisher|first1=Ian}}</ref>

She wrote that the "sons of Allah breed like rats", and in a ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' interview in 2005, she said that Europe was no longer Europe but "[[Eurabia]]".<ref name="ian-fisher" /> ''The Rage and the Pride'' and ''[[The Force of Reason]]'' both became bestsellers, the former selling over one million copies in Italy and 500,000 in the rest of Europe,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://observer.com/2003/01/the-rage-of-oriana-fallaci/|title=The Rage of Oriana Fallaci|work=Observer|date=27 January 2003}}</ref> and are considered part of the "Eurabia genre".<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263485050|title=Eurabia Comes to Norway|page=3|journal=Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations|date=July 2013|doi=10.1080/09596410.2013.783969|first=Sindre|last=Bangstad|volume=24 |issue=3 |s2cid=145132618 }}</ref> Her third book in the same vein, ''Oriana Fallaci intervista sé stessa – L'Apocalisse'' ("The Apocalypse"), sold some two million copies globally,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/sep/16/guardianobituaries.italy|title=Obituary: Oriana Fallaci|date=16 September 2006|work=The Guardian}}</ref> the three books together selling four million copies in Italy.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/06/05/the-agitator|title=The Agitator|date=28 May 2006|magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref>

Her writings have been translated into 21 languages, including [[English language|English]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[French language|French]], [[Dutch language|Dutch]], [[German language|German]], [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], [[Urdu]], [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], [[Polish language|Polish]], [[Hungarian language|Hungarian]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], [[Romanian language|Romanian]], [[Serbo-Croatian]], [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Slovene language|Slovenian]], [[Danish language|Danish]] and [[Bulgarian language|Bulgarian]].