Dominique Strauss-Khan has become the latest member of the prestigeous shoe club.

The Fund’s managing director was addressing students on the campus of Bilgi University when a student took aim with a white trainer, chanting “get out of the university, thief IMF.”

Television footage showed security guards shielding Mr Strauss-Kahn and hustling the bearded student, who wore a white t-shirt and sleeveless jacket, out of the room.

Mr Strauss-Kahn later shrugged off the protest. “It is important for us to have an open debate. I was glad to meet students and hear their views. This is what the IMF needs to do, even if not everyone agrees with us. One thing I learned, Turkish students are polite. They waited until the end to complain,” he told reporters.

Other illustrious members include George W. Bush, Wen Jiabao, Indian Home minister P. Chidambaram, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if the internet whisper factory is to be believed. Displaying, or striking someone with, the sole of the shoe is a serious insult in the Arab world (although in the west it evokes little more than an inane reference to a Mike Meyers movie) – I’m glad to see it catching on, however. America may lead the world in cultural exports but the Arabs have the market for creative political protest cornered.