On July 15, 2012, while on a trip to Alexandria in Egypt, the car of America's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pelted with tomatoes, empty bottles and shoes. This did not cause any harm to the woman, but the incident received a strong public response.
Hillary Clinton faced harsh public criticism when she came to Egypt for the first time since Islamist Mohamed Morsi became the country's president. Her previous visits had been more successful. Clinton was pelted with tomatoes after her speech at the official opening of the American consulate in Alexandria. Clinton talked about democratic freedoms and called on the Egyptians to develop them, gradually changing their views and adopting the experience of other, more developed countries.
The arrival of Hillary Clinton in Egypt was harshly condemned by opponents of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood movement, whose leader became the new president. The arrival of the American Secretary of State was perceived by the Egyptians as an open US interference in the internal politics of their country, and Clinton's speech in defense of democracy was the last straw that overflowed the cup of patience.
Surrounding the motorcade in which Hillary was riding, the demonstrators began to shout "Go away!" and “Monica, Monica!”, recalling that former US President and husband Clinton cheated on his wife with a White House intern, which caused a terrible scandal. Tomatoes were thrown into cars, and one of them hit an Egyptian official in the face. The demonstrators claimed that it was America that helped the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood to come to power and shouted insulting phrases against the representatives of Islam.
Among the people who threw tomatoes at Hillary Clinton, most likely, there were many associates of Egyptian President Hosni Mubaraki, ousted by the Islamists. Throwing tomatoes and even more so shoes is a sign of the highest contempt and hatred, as well as a way of insult. He became especially popular after journalist al-Zaydi threw a shoe at Bush in 2008. Since ordinary Egyptians had no opportunity to express all their claims in the face of the US Secretary of State, they expressed their attitude differently.
