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