Of shoes and feet soles in Arab/Emirati culture

From Ahmet of Tunisia:  "Asad, from the culture pages of Sons Zayed, an anthropological breakdown: "As an Arab, you can use the shoe to offend someone else. Examples: the famous incident where a shoe that was thrown at the US president by an Iraqi journalist in 2008 and hitting the shoes against the statue of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Now, if you accidentally did show the soles of your feet then you can apologise. Every Emirati would understand that you didn't have the knowledge and didn't mean anything wrong by it, but it could come across as really negative if you felt the Emirati was uncomfortable and you still didn't conceal the soles of your feet or at least apologise. Just be aware of the meaning of this gesture when you interact with everyone - not just Emiratis. Believe me when I say, I used to feel shocked on seeing some students at my school back in the States put their legs on top of the desks while the teacher was teaching. It was a scene I never appreciated. What made it worse was that many teachers didn't care, but I can assure you that in our region, this would be taken negatively and people can be judged by their impolite attitude and behaviour.""