Mohamed Bouazizi

Mohamed Bouazizi

Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010. His self-immolation was in response to the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides. His death became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring against autocratic regimes. The Tunisians were hailed by Arab commentators as ‘heroic martyrs of a new Middle Eastern revolution’ and ‘heroes of the Arab Spring’

About Mohamed Bouazizi in brief

Summary Mohamed BouaziziTarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on 17 December 2010. His self-immolation was in response to the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation inflicted on him by a municipal official and her aides. His death became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the wider Arab Spring against autocratic regimes. In 2011 he was posthumously awarded the Sakharov Prize jointly along with four others for his and their contributions to \”historic changes in the Arab world\”. The Tunisian government honored him with a postage stamp. The Times of the United Kingdom named him as \”Person of 2011\”, The Jerusalem Post’s Amotz Asa-El named him ‘Person of the Jewish Year 5771’, and Time named him their Person of the Year. The success of the Tunisia protests inspired protests in several other Arab countries, plus several non-Arab countries. The protests included several men who emulated Bouzizi’s act of self- immolation, in an attempt to bring an end to their own autocratic governments. The Tunisians were hailed by Arab commentators as ‘heroic martyrs of a new Middle Eastern revolution’ and ‘heroes of the Arab Spring’ The protests led to the resignation of the then-president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, on 14 January 2011, after 23 years in power. He was the first Tunisian president to step down since Ben Ali took office in 1997.

The Arab Spring began in January 2011 and spread to several other countries, including Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the UK and the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada and the Netherlands. The first Arab Spring leader to resign was Mohamed El-Khoury, who stepped down in March 2011. The second was Mohamed Ben Youssef, who resigned in March 2012. The third was Youssefi’s successor as president, Mohamed El Barkhi, who was sworn in in March 2013. The fourth was Tunisian Prime Minister H.E. Ben Salam, who took over from Ben Abidine in April 2013, after Ben Ali resigned in December 2013, following a year-long revolt against Ben Ali. The fifth and sixth were Tunisian MPs, who were elected in November 2013 and March 2014, respectively. The seventh and eighth were elected to the National Assembly of Tunisia in December 2014. The ninth and tenth were elected by Tunisian lawmakers in January 2015. The eighth and ninth were elected on December 20, 2015, and January 17, 2016, and March 17, 2017, respectively, by Tunisians and other political parties. The eleventh and ninth elected to be a member of the Assembly of Representatives of the Parliament of the Republic of Tunisia was H.A. Jafar Ghitis, who served as the prime minister of Tunisia from 2007 to 2013.