Arab dads offer brides to shoe throwing hero

Daughters happy to live in Baghdad with courageous Iraqi

CAIRO/DUBAI (Agencies, AlArabiya.net)

Iraq's shoe-throwing journalist has become a hero in the Arab world and men have started offering their daughters in marriage to the courageous man who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday.

An Egyptian man said he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to 27-year-old Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi.

The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea.

"This is something that would honor me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero," she told Reuters by telephone.

Meanwhile in the West Bank city of Nablus, the head of a large family wants to reward Zaidi by taking one of his eligible daughters to Iraq along with her dowry, according to published reports.

The 500-member family had also offered $30,000 for Zaidi's legal defense.

Since throwing his shoes at Bush at a press conference, Zaidi has made front page news across the world. Thousands took to the streets in Iraq to protest his arrest and demand the government release him.