32 Facts About Oriana Fallaci

Oriana Fallaci was born in Florence, Italy, on 29 June 1929.

Oriana Fallaci's father Edoardo Fallaci, a cabinet maker in Florence, was a political activist struggling to put an end to the dictatorship of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini.

Oriana Fallaci later received a certificate for valour from the Italian army.

Oriana Fallaci later transferred to literature but soon dropped out and never finished her studies.

Oriana Fallaci began her career in journalism during her teens, becoming a special correspondent for the Italian paper Il mattino dell'Italia centrale in 1946.

For many years, Oriana Fallaci was a special correspondent for the political magazine L'Europeo, and wrote for a number of leading newspapers and the magazine Epoca.

In Mexico City, during the 1968 Tlatelolco massacre, Oriana Fallaci was shot three times by Mexican soldiers, dragged downstairs by her hair, and left for dead.

Oriana Fallaci maintained that Panagoulis' "accident" had been arranged by remnants of the Greek military junta despite the transition to a democracy, and her book Un Uomo was inspired by his life.

Oriana Fallaci 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".

Oriana Fallaci 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".

Oriana Fallaci's writings have been translated into 21 languages, including English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Urdu, Greek, Swedish, Polish, Hungarian, Hebrew, Romanian, Serbo-Croatian, Persian, Slovenian, Danish and Bulgarian.

On 27 August 2005, Oriana Fallaci had a private audience with Pope Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo.

Oriana Fallaci was a vocal critic of Islam, especially after the Iranian Revolution and the September 11 attacks in 2001.

When rumours of the construction of an Islamic centre in the city of Siena intensified, Oriana Fallaci told The New Yorker "If the Muslims build this Islamic center, she will blow it up with the help of her friends".

Oriana Fallaci died on 15 September 2006, in her native Florence, from cancer.

Oriana Fallaci was buried in the Cimitero Evangelico degli Allori in the southern suburb of Florence, Galluzzo, alongside her family members and a stone memorial to Alexandros Panagoulis, her late companion.

In 2024, a biographical novel, Oriana: A Novel of Oriana Fallaci, was published by author Anastasia Rubis based on the true story of Fallaci's career and personal life.

Oriana Fallaci twice received the St Vincent Prize for journalism.

Oriana Fallaci received the Bancarella Prize for Nothing, and So Be It; Viareggio Prize, for Un uomo: Romanzo; and Prix Antibes, 1993, for Inshallah.

On 30 November 2005, in New York City, Oriana Fallaci received the Annie Taylor Award for courage from the Center for the Study of Popular Culture.

Oriana Fallaci was honoured for the "heroism and the values" that rendered her "a symbol of the fight against Islamic fascism and a knight of the freedom of humankind".

On 8 December 2005, Oriana Fallaci was awarded the Ambrogino d'oro, the highest recognition of the city of Milan.

Oriana Fallaci received much public attention for her controversial writings and statements on Islam and European Muslims.

Oriana Fallaci claimed that Muslims were colonizing Europe through immigration and high fertility rates, in line with the Eurabia concept.

Oriana Fallaci received criticism as well as support in Italy, where her books have sold over one million copies.

At the first European Social Forum, which was held in Florence in November 2002, Oriana Fallaci invited the people of Florence to cease commercial operations and stay home.

In May 2005, Adel Smith, president of the Union of Italian Muslims, launched a lawsuit against Oriana Fallaci charging that "some of the things she said in her book The Force of Reason are offensive to Islam".

Consequently, an Italian judge ordered Oriana Fallaci to stand trial in Bergamo on charges of "defaming Islam".

Oriana Fallaci accused the judge of having disregarded the fact that Smith had called for her murder and defamed Christianity.

In France, some Arab-Muslim and anti-defamation organisations such as MRAP and Ligue des Droits de l'Homme launched lawsuits against Oriana Fallaci, charging that The Rage and the Pride and The Force of Reason were "offensive to Islam" and "racist".

On 3 June 2005, Oriana Fallaci published on the front page of the Corriere della Sera a highly controversial article titled "Noi Cannibali e i figli di Medea", urging women not to vote for a public referendum about artificial insemination that was held on 12 and 13 June 2006.

Oriana Fallaci asserted the existence of a "gay lobby", through which "the homosexuals themselves are discriminating against others".