Abstract
When a police officer slapped a fruit seller by the name of Mohammed Bouazizi in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, nobody could have anticipated that a revolution had commenced. Bouazizi, a twenty-six-year-old computer science graduate unable to find work, had resorted to selling fruit from a street cart in an attempt to support himself and his seven siblings. Slapped by the police officer and ordered to pack up his goods, Bouazizi himself snapped. He marched to the local governor’s office and demanded an appointment, threatening to set himself alight if the governor did not meet with him. In frustration, on December 17 2010 Bouazizi carried out his threat, and eighteen days later died from his injuries. Millions of young, angry, and despondent Tunisians had found their martyr. Two weeks later, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, who had ruled Tunisia mafia-style with his extensive family for thirty years, had been toppled.
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Recommended Citation
Lotze, Walter
(2011)
"Those Pesky Winds of Change...,"
Human Rights & Human Welfare: Vol. 11:
Iss.
3, Article 5.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/hrhw/vol11/iss3/5
Included in
African Studies Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, International Humanitarian Law Commons, International Law Commons, International Relations Commons, Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons, Other Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Public Policy Commons, Social Policy Commons