Oriana Fallaci

Oriana Fallaci (Italian: [oˈrjaːna falˈlaːtʃi]; 29 June 1929 – 15 September 2006) was an Italian journalist and author. As a teenager she joined the Italian resistance movement during World War II, and later had a long and successful journalistic career. Fallaci became famous worldwide for her coverage of war and revolution, and her "long, aggressive and revealing interviews" with many world leaders during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. She received various prizes for her work as a journalist and later wrote a number of best selling books.

Fallaci's book Interview with History contains interviews with Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Yasser Arafat, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Willy Brandt, Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Ruhollah Khomeini, Henry Kissinger, South Vietnamese president Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, and North Vietnamese general Võ Nguyên Giáp during the Vietnam War. The interview with Kissinger was published in The New Republic. Kissinger later wrote that it was "the single most disastrous conversation I have ever had with any member of the press".

She grew up during WWII in Italy and much of her career was focused on reporting from war zones, with the associated dangers. In 1968 Mexican soldiers shot her three times, and left her for dead. But she continued to go and report from zones of conflict. After retirement in New York, following the September 11th incidents in 2001, she wrote some articles and books critical of Islam that gained popular support but also led to accusations of Islamophobia.