The Tunisian Revolution (also called the Jasmine Revolution and Tunisian Revolution of Dignity) was an intensive 28-day campaign of civil resistance. It included a series of street demonstrations which took place in Tunisia, and led to the ousting of longtime president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. It eventually led to a thorough democratization of the country and to free and democratic elections, which had led to people believing it was the only successful movement in the Arab Spring.
The demonstrations were caused by high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, a lack of political freedoms (such as freedom of speech), and poor living conditions. The protests constituted the most dramatic wave of social and political unrest in Tunisia in three decades and resulted in scores of deaths and injuries, most of which were the result of action by police and security forces.
The protests were sparked by the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi on 17 December 2010. They led to the ousting of Ben Ali on 14 January 2011, when he officially resigned after fleeing to Saudi Arabia, ending his 23 years in power. Labor unions were an integral part of the protests. The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet was awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for "its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Tunisian Revolution of 2011". The protests inspired similar actions throughout the Arab world, in a chain reaction which became known as the Arab Spring movement.
Naming
In Tunisia, and the wider Arab world, the protests and change in government are called the Revolution or sometimes called the Sidi Bouzid Revolt, the name being derived from Sidi Bouzid, the city where the initial protests began. In the Western media, these events have been dubbed the Jasmine Revolution or Jasmine Spring, after Tunisia's national flower and in keeping with the geopolitical nomenclature of "color revolutions". The name "Jasmine Revolution" originated from American journalist Andy Carvin, but it was not widely adopted in Tunisia itself.
The protests and resultant political crises have generally been called the Jasmine revolution only in the foreign media. Tunisian philosopher Youssef Seddik deemed the term inappropriate because the violence that accompanied the event was "perhaps as deep as Bastille Day", and although the term was coined by the Tunisian journalist Zied El Hani, who first used it on his blog on 13 January and initially spread via social media such as Facebook (hence "Revolution Facebook" among the youth of Tunisia), it is not in widespread use in Tunisia itself.
The debate surrounding the name and the poetic influences behind the Tunisian revolution was a popular question among Tunisian intellectuals. The name adopted in Tunisia was the Dignity Revolution, which is a translation of the Tunisian Arabic name for the revolution, (). Within Tunisia, Ben Ali's rise to power in 1987 was also known as the Jasmine Revolution.
Some analysts have referred to this revolt as the WikiLeaks revolution and the Facebook revolution, as social media was used as a main source of protest during the revolution and WikiLeaks articles contributed to anti-government protests.
Background
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had ruled Tunisia since 1987, mostly as a one-party state with the Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD), following the overthrowing of his predecessor Habib Bourguiba. His government was characterised by the development of Tunisia's private sector in favor of foreign investment, and the repression of political opposition. Foreign media and criticised his government, which was supported by the United States and France. As a result, the initial reactions to Ben Ali's abuses by the U.S. and France were muted, and most instances of socio-political protest in the country, when they occurred at all, rarely made major news headlines.
Riots in Tunisia were rare and noteworthy, especially since the country is generally considered to be wealthy and stable as compared to other countries in the region. Protests had been repressed and kept silent by the regime, and protesters would be jailed for such actions, as with hundreds of unemployed demonstrators in Redeyef in 2008. As noted by Mohamed Bacha in his book, The Revolutionary Chants of Club Africain Ultras, Tunisian youth had found an outlet to express their anger and dissatisfaction, through the fan chants of sports association Club Africain Ultras, such as: The capital is very angry, We are solidary when we make war to the sons of — Who oppress us, and Hey Regime, The Revolution is Imminent.
