The Arab Spring is an extremely prominent issue today. This refers to the series of protests and civil wars that have been occurring in the Arab World due to discontent with government, human rights violations, poverty, and other factors. Countries where this is an issue include Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Sudan. One of the countries hit hardest by the revolution was Egypt.
What is often called “the spark that started it all,” occurred on December 17, 2011 in Tunisia. A street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest the corruption of the government. (Arab Spring, 2013) The 26 year old Bouazizi sold vegetables on the streets of Tunisia to make a living. His self-immolation was brought on when his cart of vegetables was confiscated by a policewoman. (Abouzeid, 2011) Bouazizi then went to the provincial headquarters to complain to officials about his situation. However, they refused to see him. Angered at the way he was being treated, Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest. (Abouzeid, 2011) He was taken to the hospital and stayed there until his death on January 4, 2011. Bouazizi’s self-immolation caused such an uproar that even Tunisia’s dictator, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, visited him in the hospital. Bouazizi’s mother, Mannoubia, said, “Mohamed did what he did for the sake of his dignity. He lives on, his name lives on. I am proud of what happened in Tunis, I am proud that he is known throughout the Arab World.” (Abouzeid, 2011) Bouazizi’s self-immolation had such a huge impact on Tunisia that Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on January 14.
Soon after Bouazizi’s self-immolation, a revolution began in Libya. The Libyan Revolution began o...
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Shaub, W. (2010). The Roots of Revolution in Egypt. Arbitrage Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.arbitragemagazine.com/topics/international-affairs/middle-east/the-roots-of-revolution-in-egypt/
Shehata, S. (2011, November 25). Profiles of Egypt's Political Parties. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15899548
Timeline Revolution in Egypt. (2014). Timelines.latimes.com. Retrieved from http://timelines.latimes.com/egypt/
Tristam, P. (n.d.). Profile: Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. Middle East Issues. Retrieved from http://middleeast.about.com/od/egypt/p/hosni-mubarak-09.htm
Zayan, J. (2011, February 14). Egypt Activists and Army Discuss Reforms. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/egypt-activists-and-army-discuss-reforms-20110214-1as8u.html
Ridel, B, 'The real losers in Egypt's uprising', The Daily Best Online, 13 February 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2011< http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-13/al-qaeda-absent-in-hosni-mubaraks-fall-and-egyptian-revolution/>
"Arab Uprisings: 10 Key Moments." BBC News. BBC, 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Abi-Habib, Maria. "In Egypt Clashes, Civilians Oppose Protestoers." Www.online.wjs.com. The Wall Street Journal, 17 Aug. 2013. Web. 6 Dec. 2013.
Early 2011 uprisings swept across the Middle East and North Africa, and many rebellions are still going on today. The Arab region has seen revolts and conflict since the 1800‘s, but only recently have these revolts been redirected to the problems of Arab society (Ghannam, J. 2011 pg 4-5)The Arab Spring Uprising was first sparked in Tunisia and eventually struck Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and then spread to other countries. Citizens throughout these countries were dissatisfied with the rule of their local governments. Issues like human rights violations, political corruption, economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, dictators...
Lang, Anthony F, From revolutions to constitutions: the case of Egypt. International Affairs 89, no. 2: 345-363 (2013). Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost.
With the development of human society, civilization is incessantly progressive. One aspect of human civilization’s progress is political civilization. Democratic politics can be considered to be the representatives of political civilization. When people refer to the history of human progress, they find that human beings struggle to achieve this great goal and no one can stop the human desire for political freedom. In 2011, one more country took a step towards democracy. Egypt is in the ancient, sacred and conservative Middle East. Egyptians are cheering for their own political aspirations as they overthrew Mubarak’s dictatorship, and are gradually making efforts to establish a democratic and peaceful country.
Sullivan, Kevin. "In Tunisia, Islamist government paralyzed by middle-class backlash and extremist violence." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 9 Feb. 2014. .
In the Arab world in late 2010, starting in Tunisia and flowering in Egypt, a movement of people frustrated by their governments, corrupt leaders and a lack of jobs suddenly felt safe to take to the streets. The Arab Spring began when a young Tunisian man set himself on fire to protest government corruption and poor economic conditions. This action inspired a wave of protests across Tunisia, which ultimately resulted in the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from power.
Weaver, Matthew, Haroon Siddique, Richard Adams, and Tim Hill. “Protests in Egypt - as they happened.” The Guardian. The Guardian, 28 Jan 2011. Web. 30 Nov 2013. .
The Arab Spring is an incessant cause of conflicts in various countries. The revolutionary pattern of demonstrations and scathing civil wars and riots has permeated all over the Arabian League countries and their environments. Most of the acts of revolution and protests had been terminated by 2012. However, the occasional violence and protests in these countries evince the continuation of the Arab Spring. Some of the countries who have experienced the Arab Spring revolution are Libya, Egypt, and Syria. This paper will focus on the Arab Spring and its impact in Libya. Anti-government protests in Libya
As the Arab Spring enters its second year, major uprisings and revolts have occurred all over the Middle East, pushing for an end to the corrupt autocratic rule and an expansion of civil liberties and political rights. Most recently, images from Syria have emerged, depicting the government’s use of force to suppress the voice of its people. One might ask, “Is this the beginning of a revolution? Is the country on the path to democracy?” To assess this question and examine the future trends in the region, one must look back on the country’s somewhat tumultuous history, the relationship between the citizens and the state, and the political economy.
The Tunisian Revolution, for example, resulted in the successful ousting of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his oppressive regime, which then galvanized many Egyptians to seek independence from their own authoritarian government with deplorable characteristics of its own (Zayed par. 12). Seeing that many of the Tunisian complaints were identical to their own, residents of Suez, Egypt, grew increasingly critical of their government’s faults, such as the 10.4% unemployment rate, widespread governmental corruption, and excessive use of police torture, and refused to remain compliant to state demands (Dziadosz par. 5). This developing sense of defiance towards the government spread throughout the entire country, as many young Egyptians began affiliating themselves with one prominent Tunisian protest group in the Tunisian Revolution - April 6 Youth Movement - in hopes of commencing their own revolution. And, with the help of the group on January 25, 2011, Egyptians around their country gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square for what would be the revolution’s largest protest (Kirkpatrick 2). While many internal issues ignited the nation’s sense of revolution, the Tunisian Revolution influenced many of its neighbor’s citizens to seek the same goal of achieving true democracy and
One example of this Is the Arab Springs anti-government protests of 2011 that occurred across the Middle East. These protests, both non-violent and turning violent, began in Tunisia in 2010 and were in response to the corrupt and authoritarian leadership of then President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. This time, with the emergence of technology and social media, talks began claiming sentiments towards their failing government, calling for action to be done. In addition to statements online, activists allied together and started protest rallies and revolts in outrage and anger at their supposed leaders. Social media allowed for people to organize group demonstrations fairly quickly, easily, and cohesively. While this revolt originated in Tunisia, other nations joined in with the aid of technology, and it spread across the region in the following years to Egypt, Syria, Libya and many other Middle Eastern countries.
...vement: cycles of protest. In: EL-MAHDI, R. and MARFLEET, P., (eds.). Egypt: The Moment of Change. London, UK: Zed Books, Ltd., pp 87-102
On January 25, 2011, Egypt dissolved into protests--a revolution thirty years in the making. The quasi-middle class (not comparable to the American standard of a middle class) of college educated youths and the working class united based on the culmination of years of corruption and abuse and the sparks that the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution and the 2011 Alexandria New Year’s Day bombings represented. The “Five Stages of Revolution” model can be applied to Egypt’s revolution, as well as some aspects of the J. Brown Paradigm of National Development, such as the Identifiable People Group, presented themselves throughout Egypt’s conflict.