On December 17th, 2010 Mohamed Bouazizi lit himself on fire in front of his local governor’s home in Tunisia. This action was the beginning of the revolution in Tunisia, dubbed the Jasmine Revolution. This was historic because it was the first revolution in the Arab Spring, which then spread all over the Middle Eastern world.
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the authoritarian dictator of Tunisia, came to power in 1987. Previous to his regime, illiteracy was 46.2%, and 80.8% of the population had little to no education (Akkari 2). Tunisia then began investing in their education system, instilling the value of education among its people. Attendance in the schools rose because of the availability of education and illiteracy rates fell to 24.7% in 2001, and have shown a steady decline (Akkari 2). “In the increasingly service-oriented global economy, education and skills represent a kind of wealth” (Birdsall 89). Through education, the Tunisian government was assisting its people improve their economic status. However, education cannot flourish without allowing free speech and basic human rights, something that the Tunisian government still had not allowed (Nature 469, 2011).
With education on the rise, it comes as no surprise that the people of Tunisia wanted more political freedom. The Modernization Theory is the idea that as society develops economically and socially, that society will want more political freedom (Turner 549). With the population in Tunisia becoming more educated they still were not allowed much say as to how they were governed. When Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire, it was in protest of the rising unemployment due to the global economic situation and inequality. His story was then shared to the global online community. “…technology enables citizens to report news, expose wrongdoing, express opinions, mobilize protest, monitor elections, scrutinize government, deepen participation, and expand the horizons of freedom” (Diamond 3). With the economic downfall of Tunisia fueling the spirit of revolution, the internet provided a cheap way for the people of Tunisia to broadcast their message. The internet provides a cheap way for citizens of any country to push for reform and change. (Morozov) The internet allowed the Tunisian people to evade their country’s censorship laws, because the internet is a public platform that is hard to police. The revolutionaries relied heavily on the internet to broadcast their message around the world. “Hyperlinks on the world wide web erode the strict linearity of traditional text culture” (Donk XV). Hyperlinks connect related articles within a text. This helped unite like-minded readers all over the world to the revolutionaries’ ideas and form online groups and social structures to help end Ben Ali’s suppressive regime. “#sidibouzid”, a reference to a Twitter feed, named for the town where the self-immolation took place, that demonstrators used as a forum for their anger and their plans” (Kirkpatrick). The slogan “Ben Ali out!” appeared all over the web, rallying the people of Tunisia together. The internet helped place the protestors and the elite on equal footing. Protestors began to rally in the streets asking for an end to political oppression and inequality. Naturally, police forces and citizens clashed. “Nessma TV, a private news channel became the first major Tunisian media outlet to cover the protests” (Hanley).
As Robert Darnton describes “the struggle for power is the mastery of public opinion.” (Darnton xiii) On January 14th, 2011 President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali declared a state of emergency. He closed Tunisian airspace, newspapers, universities and schools and ordered his army to shoot into the crowds of protestors. (Hanley) Ben Ali was then forced to flee the country by protestors when his military refused to shoot at innocent people.
An in-term government was formed to replace Ben Ali, but protestors did not agree with that either. “In May, such theories were given major currency when a video appeared on Facebook in which the former interior minister Farhat Rajhi, a highly trusted public figure in Tunisia, claimed that Ben Ali loyalists were planning a military coup after October’s elections.” (Duncan) Protestors and police once again clashed in the streets, demanding an end to Ben Ali’s hold on Tunisia. In October 2011, Tunisia had the first free election in the Arab Spring.
Works Cited
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Darnton, Robert, and Daniel Roche. Revolution in Print: The Press in France, 1775-1800. Berkeley: University of California Press in collaboration with the New York Public Library, 1989. Print.
Diamond, Larry. “Liberation Technology.” Journal of Democracy. 21.3 (2010): n. page. Print.
Donk, W. B. Cyberprotest, New Media, Citizens, and Social Movements. New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. Print.
Duncan, D. (2011), Tunisia‘s Revolutionary Challenges. Political Insight, 2: 16–17. doi: 10.1111/j.2041-9066.2011.00080.x
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Kirkpatrick, David. “Tunisia Leader Flees and Prime Minister Claims Power.” New York Times. 14 Jan 2011: n. page. Web. 6 Mar. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/world/africa/15tunis.html?_r=1>.
Morozov, Evgeny. RSA Animate: The Internet and Society. 2011. Video. thersa.org.Web. 12 Mar 2012. <http://www.thersa.org/events/video/animate/rsa-animate-the-internet-and-society>.
Turner, Henry Ashby. “Fascism and Modernization.” World Politics. 24.4 (1972): 547-564. Print.
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