Arab Spring | pro-democracy protests | Britannica.com pro-democracy protests Arab wave of pro-democracy protests and uprisings that took place in the Middle East and North Africa beginning in 2010 and 2011, challenging some of the region’s entrenched authoritarian regimes. Demonstrators expressing political and economic grievances faced violent crackdowns by their countries’ security forces. For detailed coverage of the Arab Spring in individual countries, see Jasmine Revolution (Tunisia), Egypt Uprising of 2011 , Yemen Uprising of 2011–12 , Libya Revolt of 2011 , and Syria Uprising of 2011–12 . Demonstrators in the capital city of Tunis sitting on a wall where “Free at last” was … Christophe Ena/AP In January and February 2011, protests in Tunisia and Egypt succeeded in a matter of weeks in toppling two regimes thought to be among the region’s most stable. The first demonstrations took place in central Tunisia in December 2010, catalyzed by the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi , a 26-year-old street vendor protesting his treatment by local officials.

A protest movement, dubbed the “Jasmine Revolution” in the media, quickly spread through the country. The Tunisian government attempted to end the unrest by using violence against street demonstrations and by offering political and economic concessions. However, protests soon overwhelmed the country’s security forces, compelling Pres. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to step down and flee the country in January 2011. In October 2011, Tunisians participated in a free election to choose members of a council tasked with drafting a new constitution. A democratically chosen president and prime minister took office in December 2011. Massive protests broke out in Egypt in late January 2011, only days after Ben Ali’s ouster in Tunisia. The Egyptian government also tried and failed to control protests by offering concessions while cracking down violently against protesters. After several days of massive demonstrations and clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo and around the country, a turning point came at the end of the month when the Egyptian army announced that it would refuse to use force against protesters calling for the removal of Pres. Ḥosnī Mubārak .

Having lost the support of the military, Mubārak left office on February 11 after nearly 30 years, ceding power to a council of senior military officers. An Egyptian armoured personnel carrier covered in anti-Mubārak graffiti in Cairo, 2011. monasosh Tiananmen Square incident In the period of the euphoria that followed, the new military administration enjoyed high public approval, since the military had played a decisive role in ending the Mubārak regime. However, optimism was dampened when the new administration appeared hesitant to begin a full transfer of power to an elected government and when military and security forces resumed the use of violence against protesters. Confrontations between protesters and security forces became frequent occurrences. In spite of a multiday outbreak of violence in late November 2011, parliamentary elections proceeded as scheduled and the newly elected People’s Assembly held its inaugural session in late January 2012. Encouraged by protesters’ rapid successes in Tunisia and Egypt, protest movements took hold in Yemen , Bahrain , Libya , and Syria in late January, February, and March 2011.

In these countries, however, outpourings of popular discontent led to protracted bloody struggles between opposition groups and ruling regimes. In Yemen , where the first protests appeared in late January 2011, Pres. ʿAlī ʿAbd Allāh Ṣāliḥ ’s base of support was damaged when a number of the country’s most powerful tribal and military leaders aligned themselves with the pro-democracy protesters calling for him to step down. When negotiations to remove Ṣāliḥ from power failed, loyalist and opposition fighters clashed in Sanaa. Ṣāliḥ left Yemen in June to receive medical treatment after he was injured in a bomb attack, raising hopes among the opposition that a transition would begin. Ṣāliḥ returned to the country unexpectedly four months later, however, adding to the uncertainty and confusion about Yemen’s political future. In November 2011 Ṣāliḥ signed an internationally mediated agreement calling for a phased transfer of power to the vice president, ʿAbd Rabbuh Manṣūr Hadī .

In accordance with the agreement, Hadī took over governing responsibility immediately and formally assumed the presidency after standing as the sole candidate in a presidential election in February 2012. Yemeni demonstrators in Sanaa calling for an end to the government of Pres. ʿAlī ʿAbd … Hani Mohammed/AP Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent Mass protests demanding political and economic reforms erupted in Bahrain in mid-February 2011, led by Bahraini human rights activists and members of Bahrain’s marginalized Shīʿite majority. Protests were violently suppressed by Bahraini security forces, aided by a force of about 1,500 soldiers from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that entered the country in March. By the end of the month, the mass protest movement had been stifled. In the aftermath of the protests, dozens of accused protest leaders were convicted of antigovernment activity and imprisoned, hundreds of Shīʿite workers suspected of supporting the protests were fired, and dozens of Shīʿite mosques were demolished by the government. In November 2011 an independent investigation into the uprising, commissioned by the Bahraini government, concluded that the government had used excessive force and torture against protesters.

The government vowed to act on the recommendations for reform included in the report. Libya Quiz In Libya protests against the regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi in mid-February 2011 quickly escalated into an armed revolt. When the rebel forces appeared to be on the verge of defeat in March, an international coalition led by NATO launched a campaign of air strikes targeting Qaddafi’s forces. Although NATO intervention ultimately shifted the military balance in favour of the rebel forces, Qaddafi was able to cling to power in the capital, Tripoli , for several more months. He was forced from power in August 2011 after rebel forces took control of Tripoli. After evading capture for several weeks, Qaddafi was killed in Surt in October 2011 as rebel forces took control of the city.

A rebel firing a gun in the heavily contested city of Ajdābiyā in eastern Libya, March … Anja Niedringhaus/AP Tunisia - Arab Spring: A Research & Study Guide * الربيع العربي - LibGuides at Cornell University Arab Spring: A Research & Study Guide * الربيع العربي Search Arab Spring: A Research & Study Guide * الربيع العربي: Tunisia This guide lists online and print sources for what has become known as the "Arab Spring," the popular revolutionary wave in the Middle East and North Africa that started in December 2010. The ‘Spark’ That Started it All ‎ "‎الشعب يريد إسقاط النظام = The people want to bring down the regime" Tunisia's “Jasmine Revolution” is the first popular uprising to topple an established government in the Middle East and North Africa since the Iranian revolution of 1979; it’s also the spark that ignited and inspired other Revolutions in the region. It unfolded in three phases: First, on December 17, 2011, a young Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire in hopelessness and to protest his treatment at the hands of the authorities.

Demonstrations broke out in his rural hometown followed by protests in other areas of the country. A brutal security crackdown followed, reported in chocking details by online social media. Second, when protests reached the capital, Tunis, the government responded with even more brutality, arresting demonstrators, activists, and shutting down the Internet. Lastly, the President, Zine el-Abedin Ben Ali, shuffled his cabinet and promised to create 300,000 jobs, but it was too late; protesters now just wanted the regime to fall and its President stripped of any power. On January 14, Ben Ali and his family fled the country taking refuge in Saudi Arabia. This act marked the end of one of the Arab world's most repressive regimes. It was a victory for people power and perhaps the first time ever in history that an Arab dictator has been removed by a revolution rather than a coup d’Etat. Web Archives Tunisia: The Arab Spring's success story? (A group of Tunisians try to figure out how to make the move from revolution to a functioning democratic state).

aljazeera.com Poisoned spring: revolution brings Tunisia more fear than freedom / Robert Fisk( independent.co.uk,21 February 2012 "The hopes vested in last year's uprising have ended in continued censorship, growing intolerance and unemployment ..." Social Media & Networks Elections--Post Revolution Tunisia’s Elections for A Constitutional Assembly, 2011 The campaign for the first elections born of the revolts that swept the Middle East began in Tunisia on Saturday, 1 October. It features 81 political parties (out of more than 115 recognized parties) competing in the elections, making up 785 electoral lists; another 676 lists are composed of independent candidates. They’re competing for 217 seats. It is expected that those elected to a provisional constituent assembly will then have a year to write a constitution outlining how Tunisians will govern themselves before elections for a regular parliament will be held. ♦Tunisian Elections, 2011 (Cornell) ♦IFES Election Guide. Tunisia . Democracy assistance & elections news from the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS) / International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

Voters Online Guides (about Candidates and Parties) "Aims to Help Voters Understand Parties, Tunisia's best fixers." A new interactive platform for voters to better know the political parties running for the elections. The web site is designed to address the questions of whom to vote for, why, and how to tell the difference between Tunisia’s numerous political parties. Elections 2011 Ajidoo.com Programs of leading parties. Nchoof. org, launched on Sunday (October 2nd), enables Tunisians to present their complaints of malpractice during the electoral campaign and vote counting. The Citizenship Alliance for Elections Monitoring, which comprises associations “My Voice”, “Political Awareness” and Internet Society Tunisie (ISOC), developed the initiative. * National Constituent Assembly openin session 22 November, 2011 / المجلس الوطني التأسيسي يفتتح أولى جلساته - تونس - FRANCE 24 تشرين الثاني / 22 (نوفمبر) 2011‎ *The Tunisian Independent High Authority for the Elections officially announces the final results ( Official Announcement / Election Results ).

The Islamist party Ennahda obtains 41,47 %, securing 89 seats in the 217-member constituent assembly. Furthermore, the Congress for the Republic receives 29 seats, Ettakattol 20 seats and the Progressive Democratic Party 16 seats. One independent list, the People's Petition for Justice, Liberty and Development, obtains 26 seats. The turnout is 86,1%. *The same day, a presidential decree ( Decree 3576-2011 ) convokes the constituent assembly to hold its first session on November 2011. *22 November 2011, The Constituent Assembly holds its first session and elects Mustapha Ben Jaafar, the President of the Progressive Democratic Party, as President of the Assembly. Mr. Ben Jafar’s party ranked fourth in the election, gaining 19 out of the 217 seats of the Constituent Assembly. His election is part of a coalition agreement, signed on 21 November 2011, between his political party, the Islamist moderate party Ennahda, and the Congress for the Republic.

* Writing Constitutions After the Arab Spring ( Foreign Affairs) * Final report on the Tunisian National Constituent Assembly elections : October 23, 2011 . Washington, DC : National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, 2011. 32 p., PDF file. On oct. 23, 2011, tunisians voted in an election that held profound consequences for the future of their country and the broader region. Nine months after toppling an authoritarian leader and in a country with little democratic experience, citizens waited for hours in line at polling stations to elect members of a constituent assembly that would be tasked with forming a new interim government and writing a new constitution. * Tunisie: Une presse libre se prépare aux élections / Institute for War & Peace Reporting. 1 Apr 201. En soi, le journalisme en temps d’élection n’est pas différent d’autres formes de journalisme – toutefois, pendant les campagnes électorales, les médias comme les politiciens sont observés d’encore plus près, car le monde politique et le public en général suivent les informations avec plus d’attention.

Les reportages sont observés de près pour y déceler – ou pas – biais, distorsions et inexactitudes. * Democracy, women’s rights, and public opinion in Tunisia / Robert Brym & Robert Andersen. The Arab Spring demonstrated that public opinion can powerfully affect the region’s political life. Tunisia is particularly important in this regard; it is the Arab country where democracy has taken firmest root and is therefore of enormous geopolitical significance insofar as it can serve as a model for other countries in the region. This article assesses the state of Tunisian democracy using data from a 2015 survey of 1580 Tunisian adults. Subject Headings (Search Terms in the Online Catalog) You can search the online Library Catalog to find books, journals (in print and digital), databases, DVDs, CDs and more in all campus libraries and beyond. It would be helpful to think about which search terms will be effective and structure a search that the Library tools can understand.

The following are examples of subject search terms (Subject Headings) used for research topic: Tunisia - History - Revolution, 2011 Bin ʻAlī, Zayn al-ʻĀbidīn - Resignation from office Bouazizi, Mohamed, 1984-2011 Crises - Tunisia - Politics and government - 21st century Democratization - Tunisia - 21st Century Protest movements - Tunisia - 21st Century Revolutions - Tunisia - History - 21st century Tunisia - Politics and Government - 21st Century Online social networks - Political aspects – Tunisia Social networks - Political aspects – Tunisia Twitter - Political aspects – Tunisia Arab countries - History - Arab Spring, 2011 Arab countries - Politics and government - 21st century Protest movements - Arab countries - 21st century Revolutions - Arab countries Revolutions - Arab countries - 21st century Government, Resistance to - Arab countries - History - 21st century Democratization - Middle East - History - 21st century Keyword Search Terms & Phrases You can also start with a general keyword search.

The following are suggested Keyword Search Terms (may be also useful as Internet Search Terms and phrases) Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution Chronology of the Tunisian Revolution Text & Audiovisuals (Cornell List) Mohamed Bouazizi Revolution in cyberspace: Internet, Social Media, etc. The interim government after 14 January, 2011 Influence of Spread of the revolution Documents & Electronic Texts Interim Government of National Unity and The Transition, 14 January-23 October, 2011 Higher Commission for the Realization of the Objectives of the Revolution and Democratic Transition ( Decree 06-2011 of February 18, 2011). Promulgation of Decree 14-2011 which dissolves the Parliament, the Conseil Constitutionnel and the Conseil Economique et Social and provides for a new organization of public authorities. Decree 27-2011 creating an Independent High Authority for the elections.

Promulgation of the electoral code on the election of the Assemblée Constituante, Decree 35-2011 modified and completed by Decree 72-2011 of August 3, 2011. Promulgation of Decree 87-2011 on political parties Promulgation of Decree 88-2011 on associations. The Tunisian Independent High Authority for the Elections officially announces the final results ( Official Announcement / Election Results ). Bostanji, Sami: La guerre de l’article premier n’aura pas lieu, in: L'Observatoire Tunisien de la Transition Démocratique. Political transition in Tunisia / Alexis Arieff . [Washington, D.C.?] : Congressional Research Service, 2011. (digital, PDF file) On January 14, 2011, Tunisian President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali fled the country after weeks of mounting anti-government protests. Tunisia's mass popular uprising, dubbed the "Jasmine Revolution," sparked anti-government movements in other countries across the region. Ben Ali's departure was greeted by widespread euphoria within Tunisia.

Yet disputes over reform priorities, economic crisis, labor unrest, tensions between the privileged coastal region and relatively impoverished interior, and lingering insecurity are continuing challenges. The humanitarian and security impact of events in neighboring Libya present additional difficulties. National elections were held on October 23 to select a National Constituent Assembly. The Assembly has put in place a transitional government and is expected to draft a new constitution, ahead of new elections that have yet to be scheduled. Thousands of candidates competed for seats in the Assembly, but the outcome showed popular support to be primarily focused on a handful of political parties. ... These pertain to the struggle between reformists and entrenched forces carried over from the former regime; the potential shape of the new political order; the role and influence of Islamism in the government and society; the question of how to transform the formerly repressive security services; and the difficult diplomatic balance -- for the United States and other actors -- of encouraging greater democratic openness while not undermining other foreign policy priorities. Redissi, Hamadi, La nahdha et la transition démocratique, in: L'Observatoire Tunisien de la Transition Démocratique. Confidence-building in Tunisia after the popular uprising: strategies and dilemmas of the interim government .

Roma : Istituto affari internazionali, 2011. 08 pages. Since the fall of Ben Ali on 14th January 2011, Tunisia has been going through a process of transformation and reconfiguration of the manifold relationships between the state and society. So far, a series of legal amendments and policy provisions have been considered to respond to immediate political demands in the run-up to the next elections. A Successful Jewish Return to Tunisia . Gil Shefler. The Wall Street Journal. May 17, 2012. Audiovisuals & Multimedia The interim government after 14 January, 2011 Influence of Spread of the revolution In Tunisia, an 'Explosion of Frustration' in Protests (Jan. 14, 2011) JUDY WOODRUFF: Late today, President Obama condemned and deplored the use of violence against citizens peacefully voicing their opinion in Tunisia. In a statement released by the White House, the president said, "The United States stands witness to the Tunisian people seeking to make their voices heard." He called upon the Tunisian government to hold free and fair elections in the near future.

( Also transcript). Post-Revolution Tunisia Attempts Painful Transition to Democracy The PBS NewsHour (Feb. 15, 2012) One year after the revolution that sparked the Arab Spring, Tunisia faces ongoing economic and political struggles as it attempts a painful transition to democracy. Jessie Deeter reports, as part of a collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. ( Also transcript). After Censorship, Tunisian Bookseller Faces Dilemma . National Public Radio®. All Things Considered . June 8, 2012. "The tables have turned for one bookshop owner in Tunis, who had to operate under censorship during the dictatorship of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. After having to fight for decades to sell the books she wanted, there is now one volume she doesn't particularly want on her shelves. The former dictator's hated wife, Leila Trabelsi, has come out with her version of the facts, called My Truth." Listen to the Story . Supporting the challenges of democratic transition in Tunisia: a call for prompt action from the G8 / Rym Ayadi.

[PDF, 3 p.] At the G8 meeting in Deauville, May 26-27, the leaders of the world's major economies are called upon in a new CEPS Commentary by Rym Ayadi to make a major commitment to support the Tunisian people's quest for inclusive and sustainable economic and social development, following the Jasmine Revolution early this year.--Publisher description. Security sector reform in Tunisia : a year after the Jasmine Revolution / Querine Hanlon. Washington, DC : U.S. Institute of Peace, 2012. The U.S. Institute of Peace Security Sector Governance Center is engaged in a funded study of the prospects for security sector reform in North Africa. In January 2012, Querine Hanlon, Daniel Brumberg, and Robert Perito traveled to Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt. This report is the first in a series of country-focused reports on security sector reform in North Africa. Can Tunisia spark a revolutionary wave? / Deborah Jerome. New York, NY : Council on Foreign Relations, January 18, 2011.

"The overthrow of Tunisia's government last week in what has been dubbed a Jasmine Revolution has reverberated throughout the region and has left Tunisia itself in a state of political turbulence. In the wake of the ouster of Tunisian President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali are two questions: Is Tunisia's example likely to spark comparable uprisings across the Arab world? And will democracy take root in Tunisia?"--Web page. The 'Arab Spring': Five years on | Amnesty International This site uses cookies to help improve your online experience. Learn more Amnesty International The 'Arab Spring': Five years on Campaigns Demonstrations Protesters took to the streets across the Arab world in 2011, pushing their leaders to end decades of oppression. The Middle East and North Africa was engulfed in an unprecedented outburst of popular protests and demand for reform. It began in Tunisia and spread within weeks to Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria. Long-standing authoritarian leaders were swept from power, including Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. Many hoped that this “Arab Spring” would bring in new governments that would deliver political reform and social justice .

But the reality is more war and violence, and a crackdown on people who dare to speak out for a fairer, more open society. Hussein Ghrer, human rights activist, Syria At some point we decided to stop being silent and our revolution started. The “Arab Spring”: Timeline Refugees make their way across Europe, September 2015. © Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Residents inspect a site hit by airstrikes, Syria, October 2015. © REUTERS/Ammar Abdullah What happened next? Five years later, human rights are under attack across the region . Hundreds of thousands of people, many of them children, have been killed during armed conflicts that continue to rage in Syria, Libya and Yemen. The Syrian conflict has created the largest refugee crisis of the 21st century. Most human rights activists and political leaders in Bahrain are behind bars. Nabeel Rajab, human rights defender, Bahrain Share this Email In Syria, Egypt, Bahrain and other countries, governments are attacking free speech by locking up human rights activists, political opponents and critics, often in the name of counter-terrorism.

What’s more, few have been brought to justice for the violence, killings and torture which took place during and after the protests of 2011. What are we calling for? Together, we need to push countries to stop attacking civilians during armed conflicts. They must also stop locking people up just for criticizing governments, and bring to justice the people responsible for human rights crimes. Family of detained political activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, June 2015 The Regime in Egypt is waging war against the young who dare to dream of a bright future for themselves and their country. A school in Yemen struck by missiles fired by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition. © Amnesty International People in Tunisia celebrating during the first presidential elections, October 2014. © FADEL SENNA/AFP/Getty Images After the "Arab Spring": Country by country Tunisia The only relative “success story” with a new constitution and some justice for past crimes. But human rights are still under attack, and reforms are urgently needed. Egypt Peaceful activists, critics of the government and many others remain in jail . Torture and other ill-treatment is rife.

Hundreds have been sentenced to death and tens of thousands put behind bars for protesting or for their alleged links to the political opposition. Bahrain The authorities are silencing dissent by using unnecessary force, arresting and jailing protesters and political opposition leaders, and torturing detainees. Libya There are many armed conflicts across this deeply divided country. All sides have committed war crimes and serious human rights abuses . Syria The region’s bloodiest armed conflict, which emerged in response to the brutal suppression of mass protests by the government of Bashar al-Assad. Atrocious crimes are being committed on a mass scale and half the population has been displaced. Yemen The "Arab Spring": in numbers 11m+ People forced from their homes in Syria since 2011. 50 People killed and hundreds injured during protests in Sana’a, Yemen, on 18 March 2011. 6,000 People injured by Egyptian security forces and "thugs" assisting them during the “25 January Revolution” in 2011. Walking through the ruins of Kobane, Syria, March 2015.

Credit: YASIN AKGUL/AFP/Getty Images The aftermath of air strikes in Aleppo, Syria, January 2016. Credit: KARAM AL-MASRI/AFP/Getty Images Syria since the ‘Arab Spring’: 8 key facts Bashar al-Assad’s government brutally suppressed mass protests which began on 15 March 2011. The violent response sparked the region’s most severe armed conflict in which more than 250,000 people have been killed, according to the UN. Since then, more than 11 million people have been forced from their homes, including around 7 million people within Syria and more than 4 million who are now refugees abroad, mostly in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan. Government forces have repeatedly shelled and bombed civilian areas using indiscriminate weapons, including barrel bombs. They’ve also bombed hospitals, targeted medical workers and mounted long-running sieges of opposition-held areas, depriving people of food, medicines and other necessities. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, approximately 65,000 people have been arrested by government security forces and are now missing in a network of unofficial detention centres.

Others have been jailed for helping people forced from their homes by the fighting, or for speaking out about the situation in Syria. Intelligence agencies and other government forces continue to use torture on a massive scale. Thousands have died in custody since 2011 due to torture and other factors, including lack of food and medical access. The armed group calling itself the Islamic State (IS) has shelled civilian areas and killed scores of civilians and prisoners. Other armed groups including Jabhat al-Nusra have also attacked civilian areas, abducted suspected opponents and killed captives. Russian air strikes in support of the al-Assad government have killed hundreds of civilians and struck medical facilities. Syria since 2011: In numbers 65,000 People missing after being arrested by government forces, according to SNHR 250,000 People have been killed, according to the UN 4M People are now refugees abroad, mostly in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan A Saudi soldier near the Saudi-Yemeni border, April 2015.

© FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images A man walks through rubble of a home destroyed by an airstrike in Dammaj al-Safra, Sa'da, July 2015. © Amnesty International Yemen after the ‘Arab Spring’: An overview Mass protests erupted in January 2011 when President Ali Abdullah Saleh tried to change the constitution so he could stay in power for life. There followed months of political turmoil in which government forces killed hundreds of protesters. In an event on 18 March 2011 that became known as the “Friday of Dignity”, around 50 people were killed and hundreds injured in Sana’a after armed men, including snipers positioned on the tops of surrounding buildings, opened fire at peaceful demonstrators. President Saleh was forced to resign in February 2012 and a transition process followed which raised hopes of substantial reforms. However, the process was derailed in September 2014 when the Huthis, an armed group whose members adhere to Zaidi Shi’a Islam, entered Sana’a, helped by forces loyal to Saleh.

Eventually, President Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi and his government were forced to step down in early 2015. Then, in March 2015, a Saudi Arabia-led military coalition of at least ten Arab states began air strikes against the Huthis, sent ground troops, and imposed an air and sea blockade. Read more: ‘Yemen: The forgotten war’ . Anti-Huthi forces have committed war crimes and other serious abuses. The Saudi Arabia-led coalition has carried out indiscriminate and disproportionate air-strikes, targeted civilians , and killed more than 2,000 people. The so-called Islamic State armed group has attacked Shi’a mosques, killing civilians. Huthi forces have also committed war crimes and serious human rights abuses, including indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas, attacks on hospitals and medical workers , and use of lethal force against protesters . They have also abducted and tortured people who opposed them. © FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images Political activist, Tunisia, December 2015 The only gains we achieved during the revolution were our individual and collective freedom. This freedom is now being destroyed in the name of terrorism.

A fighter from the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition at the entrance of Tripoli international airport, August 2014. Credit: MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/Getty Images Street battles and destruction in Benghazi, February 2015. © Abdullah Doma/AFP/Getty Images Libya since the "Arab Spring" Five years ago, an initially peaceful uprising in Libya quickly developed into armed conflict involving Western military intervention and eventually ended when Colonel Mu’ammar al-Gaddafi was killed in October 2011 . Successive governments then failed to prevent newly-formed militias of anti al-Gaddafi fighters from committing serious crimes for which they never faced justice. The country remains deeply divided and since May 2014 has been engulfed in renewed armed conflict. Here are seven ways human rights are under attack across the country: All sides have committed war crimes and serious human rights abuses, including indiscriminate and direct attacks on civilians and their property. Armed groups are out of control. The so-called Islamic State (IS) took over certain areas where it has carried out public execution-style killings , sometimes leaving victims’ corpses on public display. Migrants and refugees face serious abuse.

Many are tortured, exploited and sexually abused along the smuggling route in and out of Libya. Thousands have also sought to leave Libya and cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe in unseaworthy vessels. Civilians bear the brunt of the conflict and violence across the country. Nearly 2.5 million people need humanitarian help including clean water, sanitation and food. Free speech is under attack. Journalists , human rights activists and NGO workers have been threatened, abducted and assassinated by various armed groups. TV stations have been vandalized, set ablaze and attacked with rocket-propelled grenades. Women’s rights are in retreat. Women activists have been intimidated and threatened. The legal system is barely functioning. Courts in some cities are closed because it’s so dangerous, and judges and lawyers have been attacked and abducted. Thousands of people seen as being loyal to al-Gaddafi have been detained for years without charge or trial. LIBYA AFTER THE “ARAB SPRING”: IN NUMBERS Approx 2.5M for an opposition politician who made a peaceful speech. 0 years for a security officer acquitted of torturing a journalist in detention, despite multiple medical, forensic and other reports supporting her allegations.

* Since 2011, the Bahraini authorities opened cases against a number of officers for fatally shooting protesters. In some cases, investigations were closed without anyone being prosecuted. Several officers were acquitted on the grounds that they acted in “self-defence” and a small number received prison sentences of up to 10 years, reduced on appeal to between six months and three years. © Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Lina Ben Mhenni, Tunisian blogger who has experienced threats and intimidation Can we talk about democracy at all in a country where someone is sent to jail with a heavy sentence just for expressing their beliefs? Egyptians celebrate in Tahrir Square, Cairo, after Hosni Mubarak stepped down, 12 February 2011. © PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images A boy sings in Tahrir Square, Cairo, after Hosni Mubarak steps down, February 2011. © Chris Hondros/Getty Images Egyptians mourn over a body following a crackdown on protests on 14 August 2013. © MAHMOUD KHALED/AFP/Getty Images Egypt after the "Arab Spring": 7 key facts 1.

When the “25 January Revolution” erupted in 2011, Egyptian security forces, including riot police, police snipers and plain-clothed state security officers, as well as “thugs” working for supporters of ruler Hosni Mubarak, responded violently. At least 840 protestors were killed and more than 6,000 injured in 18 days. 2. In July 2013, the army backed the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s elected president, just a year after he took office. They launched a brutal crackdown on critics including Morsi’s supporters and the Muslim Brotherhood – a political and social group whose supporters were elected to Egypt’s presidency and parliament in 2011 and 2012. The crackdown has continued under army general Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who was elected president in May 2014. 3. Around 1,000 people were killed on 14 August 2013 in protests at Rabaa al-Adawiya Square and across Egypt, according to the government. Many believe the death toll is far higher.

The authorities have still not done enough to investigate hundreds of deaths caused by the security forces since 2013. [President al-Sisi] has praised the youth of this country, yet so many of them are languishing in jail. Brother of Mahmoud Hussein, who has spent over 700 days detained without charge or trial. Share this Arab Spring Uprisings - Country Guide Arab Spring Uprisings By Primoz Manfreda Updated October 09, 2016. The Arab Spring was a series of protests and uprisings in the Middle East that began with unrest in Tunisia in late 2010. The Arab Spring has brought down regimes in some Arab countries, sparked mass violence in others, while some governments managed to delay the trouble with a mix of repression, promise of reform and state largesse. Mosa'ab Elshamy/Moment/Getty Images 1. Tunisia Tunisia is the birthplace of the Arab Spring . The self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi, a local vendor outraged over the injustices suffered at the hands of the local police, sparked countrywide protests in December 2010.

The main target was the corruption and repressive policies of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali , who was forced to flee the country on January 14 2011 after the armed forces refused to crack down on the protests. Following Ben Ali’s downfall, Tunisia entered a protracted period of political transition. Parliamentary elections in October 2011 were won by Islamists who entered into a coalition government with smaller secular parties. But instability continues with disputes over the new constitution and ongoing protests calling for better living conditions. 2. Egypt The Arab Spring began in Tunisia, but the decisive moment that changed the region forever was the downfall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak , the West’s key Arab ally, in power since 1980. Mass protests started on January 25 2011 and Mubarak was forced to resign on February 11, after the military, similar to Tunisia, refused to intervene against the masses occupying the central Tahrir Square in Cairo. But that was to be only the first chapter in the story of Egypt’s “revolution”, as deep divisions emerged over the new political system.

Islamists from the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) won the parliamentary and presidential election in 2011/12, and their relations with secular parties soured. Protests for deeper political change continue. Meanwhile, Egyptian military remains the single most powerful political player, and much of the old regime remains in place. The economy has been in freefall since the start of unrest. Timeline of Egyptian Revolution 2011 3. Libya By the time the Egyptian leader resigned, large parts of the Middle East were already in turmoil. The protests against Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi’s regime in Libya started on February 15 2011, escalating into the first civil war caused by the Arab Spring. In March 2011 the NATO forces intervened against the Qaddafi's army, helping the opposition rebel movement to capture most of the country by August 2011. Qaddafi was killed on October 20. But the rebels’ triumph was shortlived, as various rebel militias effectively partitioned the country among them, leaving a weak central government that continues to struggle to exert its authority and provide basic services to its citizens.

Most of the oil production has returned on stream, but political violence remains endemic , and religious extremism has been on the rise. 4. Yemen Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh was the fourth victim of the Arab Spring. Emboldened by events in Tunisia, anti-government protesters of all political colors started pouring onto the streets in mid-January 2011. Hundreds of people died in clashes as pro-government forces organized rival rallies, and the army began to disintegrate into two political camps. Meanwhile, Al Qaeda in Yemen began to seize territory in the south of the country. A political settlement facilitated by Saudi Arabia saved Yemen from an all-out civil war. President Saleh signed the transition deal on 23 November 2011, agreeing to step aside for a transitional government led by Vice-President Abd al-Rab Mansur al-Hadi. However, little progress toward a stabile democratic order has been made since, with regular Al Qaeda attacks, separatism in the south, tribal disputes and collapsing economy stalling the transition. 5. Bahrain Protests in this small Persian Gulf monarchy began on February 15, just days after Mubarak’s resignation.

Bahrain has a long history of tension between the ruling Sunni royal family, and the majority Shiite population demanding greater political and economic rights. The Arab Spring reenergized the largely Shiite protest movement and tens of thousands took to the streets defying live fire from the security forces. Bahraini royal family was saved by a military intervention of neighboring countries led by Saudi Arabia , as Washington looked the other way (Bahrain houses US Fifth Fleet). But in the absence of a political solution, the crackdown failed to suppress the protest movement. Protests, clashes with security forces, and arrests of opposition activists continue ( see why the crisis won't go away ). 6. Syria Ben Ali and Mubarak were down, but everyone was holding their breath for Syria: a multi-religious country allied to Iran, ruled by a repressive republican regime and a pivotal geo-political position. First major protests began in March 2011 in provincial towns, gradually spreading to all major urban areas. The regime’s brutality provoked an armed response from the opposition, and by mid-2011 army defectors began organizing in the Free Syrian Army .

By the end of 2011, Syria slid into an intractable civil war, with most of the Alawite religious minority siding with President Bashar al-Assad , and most of the Sunni majority supporting the rebels. Both camps have outside backers – Russia supports the regime, while Saudi Arabia supports the rebels – with neither side able to break the deadlock. Syrian Civil War Explained 7. Morocco The Arab Spring hit Morocco on February 20 2011, when thousands of protesters gathered in the capital Rabat and other cities demanding greater social justice and limits on the power of King Mohammed VI . The king responded by offering constitutional amendments giving up some of his powers, and by calling a fresh parliamentary election that was less heavily controlled by the royal court than previous polls. This, together with fresh state funds to help low-income families, blunted the appeal of the protest movement, with many Moroccans content with the king’s program of gradual reform. Rallies demanding a genuine constitutional monarchy continue, but have so far failed to mobilize the masses witnessed in Tunisia or Egypt. 8.

Jordan Protests in Jordan gained momentum in late January 2011, as Islamists, leftist groups and youth activists protested against living conditions and corruption. Similar to Morocco, most Jordanians wanted to reform, rather than abolish the monarchy, giving King Abdullah II the breathing space that his republican counterparts in other Arab countries didn’t have. As a result, the king managed to put the Arab Spring “on hold” by making cosmetic changes to the political system and reshuffling the government. Fear of chaos similar to Syria did the rest. However, the economy is doing poorly and none of the key issues have been addressed. The protesters’ demands could grow more radical over time. The Arab Spring was a revolution of the hungry - The Boston Globe The Arab Spring was a revolution of the hungry The Boston Globe Tweet Share KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images/file An Egyptian street vender selling bread walked past clashes near Cairo’s Tahrir Square in 2013, as riot police fired a tear gas canister at protesters.

By Thanassis Cambanis Globe Correspondent August 23, 2015 KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/Getty Images/file An Egyptian street vender selling bread walked past clashes near Cairo’s Tahrir Square in 2013, as riot police fired a tear gas canister at protesters. The Arab Spring was a revolution of the hungry The Arab world can’t feed itself, and that’s how the region’s dictators like it. Advertisement By Thanassis Cambanis Early in the Tahrir Square revolution, a group of retired Egyptian generals sat poolside at Cairo’s Gezira Club and worried about whether the country’s ruling elite could survive a popular uprising. It was February 2011, a week before President Hosni Mubarak was toppled. Millions of freshly politicized Egyptians had already taken to the streets. And yet, some of these career security men were unfazed. Get This Week in Opinion in your inbox: Globe Opinion's must-reads, delivered to you every Sunday. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here “The only thing we really need to worry about is a revolution of the hungry,” said one, a retired Air Force general.

“That would be the end of us.” As it turned out, it took less than four years for Egypt’s dictatorship to reconstitute itself, crushing the hope for real change among the people. In no small part, the regime’s resilience was due to its firm grasp of bread politics. The ruler who controls the main staples of life — bread and fuel — often controls everything else, too. The Issue of Food Nonetheless, the specter of a “revolution of the hungry” still worries authoritarian rulers today, in Egypt and throughout the Arab world. Roughly put, the idea is shorthand for an uprising that brings together not only the traditional cast of political and religious dissidents but also pits a far greater number of poor, uneducated, and apolitical citizens against the state. Advertisement Look across the region, and regimes have good reason to be afraid. Even in countries where obesity is widespread, people suffer from low-quality medical care and malnutrition due to a lack of healthy food. The basic equation is stark: The Arab world cannot feed itself.

Rulers obsessed with security have created a twisted web of importers and bakeries whose aim is not to feed the population efficiently or nutritiously but simply to maintain the regime and stave off that much feared revolution of the hungry. Vast subsidies eat up the lion’s share of national budgets. So far, the bakeries haven’t run out of loaves in two of the region’s biggest bread battlegrounds, Egypt and Syria. But the sense of plenty is only an illusion. Food is expensive, people are poor, and repressive regimes rely on imported wheat financed through foreign aid. It’s an unsustainable and volatile cocktail. “You have a system where access to food is a primary mechanism of social control,” said journalist Annia Ciezadlo, author of the book “Day of Honey,” who has written extensively about food subsidies, unrest, and the use of food as a weapon in the Middle East. “The moment something happens to that supply of subsidized food, everything can go out of control.” The Arab uprisings of 2010 and 2011 offered only the most recent glimpse of what it would look like if people got hit where it hurts the most: at the dinner table.

In 1977, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt managed a feat that had been considered impossible when he broke with the entire Arab world and initiated a peace process with Israel, even traveling to Jerusalem to address the Knesset. The bread conundrum, on the other hand, proved much more intractable. Sadat tried in January 1977 to cancel Egypt’s expensive wheat subsidy at the urging of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. Riots swept nearly every major city, and in two days Sadat caved. He restored the bread subsidy that has remained in place ever since, and the Egyptian military took control of many crucial bakeries to ensure that the government could control the bread supply in a crisis. That awkward status quo prevails to this day. The government’s bread economy is inefficient, unstable, and nearly entirely dependent on foreign imports. But any attempt to tinker with bread prices or subsidies still terrifies the country’s rulers and enrages its citizens. Regimes took heed. Hafez al-Assad, the dictator of Syria, extolled peasants in his rhetoric and made food independence a central pillar of his regime. For decades, Syrian officials constantly bragged they didn’t need to import wheat.

Dictators in the Arab world learned that one of the best routes to dominance runs through the bakery. Rulers the world round usually deploy some variant of pocketbook politics, rewarding their loyalists with perks like community centers, jobs, and payola — and punishing opposition areas by scrimping on their basic services like roads and schools. In many Middle Eastern countries, the level of control was more basic: Without the government, citizens would starve. The brittle, undemocratic regimes had, however, no mechanism of oversight and little resilience to withstand outside shocks. So distant events like a bad crop on the Black Sea or low rainfall in Canada could quickly translate into a political crisis in the Levant or North Africa. In 2008, world food prices spiked, and, once again, bread riots broke out across the Middle East. Regimes scrambled to cover the shortfall with handouts and subsidies, on the assumption that their populations might tolerate repression but not hunger. Indeed, rising commodity prices were one of the triggers in the 2010 to 2011 uprisings. Protesters in Tunisia brandished baguettes.

In Egypt, many of the revolutionary chants talked about food, and a central demand was for “bread, freedom, social justice” (it rhymes in Arabic). The first Syrians to rise up against Bashar Assad included many poor farmers who had been displaced by drought and the government’s neoliberal disinvestment from agriculture. Caitlin Werrell and Francesco Femia at the Center for Climate and Security in Washington, D.C., argue that a series of droughts in Syria from 2006 to 2010 created the preconditions for the uprisings — crop failures drove farmers off their land and raised the level of desperation until Syrians directly challenged their ruler. Saudi Arabia’s ultrarich monarchy calculated that it could survive any challenge from political dissidents critical of the country’s lack of rights and freedoms — as long as it could keep its citizens in material comfort. The king quickly increased handouts to citizens, and after a brief rumble, Saudi Arabians sat out the regional wave of protests that swept through nearly every other Arab state. Yet the obsession with food sovereignty and security remains close to the region’s despots. Saudi Arabia has purchased land in fertile water-rich countries like Ethiopia in order to secure its food supply.

In Syria, unscrupulous combatants on all sides have made food one of the war’s central battlegrounds. The regime blocks delivery of food aid to rebellious regions; its blockade of the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus has also kept out truckloads of UN food aid, causing years of famine in the camp. Further afield, the regime routinely bombs bakeries in areas that fall under rebel control, in a method colloquially referred to as “starve-or-surrender.” The Islamic State, for its part, has made control of the food supply a basic part of its blueprint for power, starting with the bakeries and wheat warehouses, and even facilitating the international aid deliveries that have kept some parts of northern Syria from suffering the same fate as Yarmouk. The Arab states are the world’s largest net importers of grains, depending on exports from water-rich North America, Europe, and Central Asia. So it follows that bread riots will break out every time there’s a disruption in the global food supply. Anger will bubble up every time there’s a drought. Or when oil profits fall and it becomes harder to pay for grain imports.

The Middle East North Africa region consumes about 44 percent of global net grain imports, according to Eckart Woertz, author of “Oil for Food: The Global Food Crisis and the Middle East”: “Self sufficiency is not an option in the region,” he said in an interview. Still, most scholars now accept the idea first proposed by the economist Amartya Sen, that food shortages and famines are usually caused by political mismanagement, not by an actual lack of food. In the Middle East, that means conditions are still ripe for a tempest. “At the end of the day, we can explain the crisis in terms of political economy: corruption, crony networks favored over rural populations. Droughts don’t cause civil war in Los Angeles,” said Woertz, who studies food and security at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs, a think tank. And it can’t be ignored that droughts have been a fact of life in the arid Arab world as long as there has been agriculture, and bread riots on their own have yet to transform a dictatorship into a democracy.

That’s because the problem is much larger: People in the Arab world have been kept poorer than they should be by corrupt repressive governments that hog national wealth for a tiny elite. Until that changes, hunger and food insecurity will remain yet another symptom of the region’s terrible governance. Thanassis Cambanis, a fellow at the Century Foundation, is the author of “Once Upon a Revolution: An Egyptian Story.” He is an Ideas columnist and blogs at thanassiscambanis.com. Home - Arab Spring: A Research & Study Guide * الربيع العربي - LibGuides at Cornell University Arab Spring: A Research & Study Guide * الربيع العربي Search Arab Spring: A Research & Study Guide * الربيع العربي: Home This guide lists online and print sources for what has become known as the "Arab Spring," the popular revolutionary wave in the Middle East and North Africa that started in December 2010. Bahrain Background Since December 2010 the world has watched as demonstrations and protests spread across countries in North Africa and the Middle East. These pro-democracy movements rose up against the dictatorial regimes and corrupt leaders that had ruled for decades in some cases. Someone called these revolutionary events “Arab Spring,” and the phrase stuck.

The specificity of these Arab revolutions is that they have been popular uprisings, leaderless and uncompromising in demanding total change. Why have the events in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, etc. followed such different paths? What are the long-term political, social, and economic ramifications of these revolutions? What are their intended and unintended consequences as countries across the region seek political and social reforms? What's the future of the Arab revolution with regard to the crucial issues of freedom, democracy, fidelity to Islam, secularism, and tribal power? There are a lot of questions and there is much to study in the causes and factors that led to these large-scale movements. This guide will attempt to provide direction to the appropriate source material within the library and beyond.

إذا الشّعْبُ يَوْمَاً أرَادَ الْحَيَـاةَ فَلا بُدَّ أنْ يَسْتَجِيبَ القَـدَر وَلا بُـدَّ لِلَّيـْلِ أنْ يَنْجَلِــي وَلا بُدَّ للقَيْدِ أَنْ يَـنْكَسِـر If a people one day wills to live --- fate [God] must answer its call And the night must fade ---- and the chain must break (by Tunisian poet Abou el-Kacem al-Chebbi, b. February 24 ,1909 - d.

October 9, 1934) The Seven Steps of the Research Process The Arab Spring: The Uprising and its Significance | Trinity Magazine 2012 - Trinity Washington University Trinity Magazine 2012 | The Arab Spring: The Uprising and its Significance The Arab Spring: The Uprising and its Significance by Caryle Murphy ’68 Caryle Murphy ’68 I was in my mother’s living room in Massachusetts. The television was on low, and my ears barely caught the news: Tunisia’s long-time strongman, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, had fled his country. I rushed to turn up the volume, eager to know what was going on. A seemingly impregnable Arab dictator was running away? From what? That was January 14, 2011. I recall the scene so vividly because it was my first inkling that something momentous had begun unfolding in the Middle East. Less than a month later, I was swept up in the exhilaration gripping the region as what came to be called the Arab Spring gusted out of Tunisia and into Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous and influential nation.

Vacation over, I had returned to Saudi Arabia, where I was working as a free lance journalist. And on the night of February 11, the television in my tiny apartment in Riyadh was tuned to Al Jazeera’s live news feed from Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the tempest’s epicenter. It was an unprecedented scene. Rebellious crowds – too huge for even Egypt’s baleful security police to disperse – were clamoring for President Hosni Mubarak to quit. My laptop was open to Twitter, where tweets came so fast and furious I could barely read them. It was electrifying. An audience of millions around the world watched to see how the historic, nail-biting drama would end. Would Mubarak, after ruling for nearly 30 years, step down and open a new panorama of opportunity and uncertainty for his 80 million countrymen, indeed for the whole region? Or would he stubbornly hold on, perpetuating the sclerotic, oppressive political order that had smothered the Arab world for so many decades? When news of Mubarak’s resignation finally came, Tahrir Square erupted into a delirious sea of dancing, singing, flag-waving Egyptians.

It was a remarkable development. For the second time in less than a month, two Arab dictators were forced from power by popular, spontaneous, unarmed rebellions. These successful uprisings had punctured the aura of the all-powerful, authoritarian Arab state, and released millions from their once-paralyzing fear of the state’s handmaiden – the ubiquitous and brutal security forces. WHY? The causes of the Arab Spring, or as some call it, Arab Awakening, were many and long-gathering. For decades, Arab populations had faced repression of free speech, human rights abuses, economic mismanagement, corruption and stifling of political dissent. Justice and human dignity were not priorities in most states. At the same time, this region of 300 million people was producing an unprecedented youth bulge, with around two-thirds of the population below 29 years of age. This youthful army is plagued by 25 percent unemployment, frustrated by diminished dreams, driven by aspirations for greater personal freedoms, and equipped with the revolutionary tools of social media: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube. In Tunisia and Egypt, youthful activists partnered with labor unions and workers to make peaceful uprisings.

These same players were key in several other revolts that followed as the Arab Spring touched every country in the region. Though outcomes were different in each location, deep, significant change occurred in all. And in countries where the faces at the top have not changed, rulers know they can no longer govern by fear alone and that a new era, both perilous and unpredictable, has emerged in the Middle East. In Libya, a ruthless, loony dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, was overthrown by armed militias backed by NATO airpower. Yemen’s despot, Ali Abdullah Saleh, was finally toppled by months of student and worker protests and a heavy push from his erstwhile allies in Riyadh and Washington. The monarchies of Jordan and Morocco survived, in part because they responded to street protests with concessions that promised reforms. Saudi Arabia, the global oil kingin, adopted a two-prong response to the Arab Awakening. It announced a $130 billion package of financial benefits, including unemployment compensation, new housing developments and salary increases. It also adopted a tougher line against public dissent, arresting writers and political activists deemed overly critical of the state.

Four other Gulf states – monarchies all – also used financial largesse and security forces to dampen inclinations to revolt. Only the tiny island state of Bahrain, home to the headquarters of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, experienced serious unrest. Those mostly peaceful protests lasted just a little more than a month, however. They were brought to an abrupt end with a ferocious crackdown by Bahraini security forces, backed up by a Saudi contingent of 1,200 troops and 800 policemen from nearby United Arab Emirates. Though the Saudis did not participate in the crackdown, they freed up Bahraini forces by providing security for key government installations and royal palaces. The Saudi participation was also meant as a bull-horned political message to both the United States, seen as partial to democratic reforms, and Iran, seen as instigator of the mainly Shiite Muslim protesters: Don’t even think that we Saudis will allow our political cousins, Bahrain’s royal family, to be ousted by a popular revolt. As for Iraq, it was already in the throes of revolutionary transition before the Arab Spring arrived. The U.S.

occupation of 2003-2011 ended Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and decades of Sunni Muslim-minority rule. In its place came an elected, Shiite Muslim-majority government, and an epidemic of sectarian conflict. Syria is proving to be the most redoubtable bulwark of the old Arab order of unaccountable despotism. Though under tremendous economic and political pressures, the regime of Bashir Al Asaad in Damascus is holding fast to power. And it seems likely that before it is toppled, much more violence, even civil war, may blight this benighted country. FORCES FOR CHANGE The Arab Spring underscored two major forces that are bringing change to the region. The first is online social media. For several years, before the climactic events of 2011, Egyptian youths had been demonstrating the usefulness of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as platforms for dissent and for organizing mass street actions. Bloggers too had emerged as powerful voices, spreading news that the state-controlled press avoided and exposing the harsh tactics of Mubarak’s security police.

A striking example of how this cyberspace activity created a pre-revolutionary mood of anger revolved around the case of 28-year-old Khaled Mohamed Said, who was beaten to death by Egyptian security thugs in 2010. Photos of his disfigured corpse were distributed online and a Facebook page entitled, “We are all Khaled Said,” created by Google employee Wael Ghonim, garnered hundreds of thousands of followers. When protests did break out in both Tunisia and Egypt, Twitter and mobile phone text messages were indispensable in alerting people to gathering spots and to police-heavy neighborhoods they should avoid. In Libya and Syria, YouTube was used to broadcast atrocities to the world. The second major force that is bringing change to the Middle East is women. As countless televised scenes from the Arab Spring testified, women were on the barricades wherever uprisings occurred. One woman, from Yemen, Tawakul Karman, even garnered a Nobel Peace Prize for her activism. Their participation was not surprising to those who know Arab women, whose toughness and tenacity are legendary. But now that the first phase of the Arab Awakening is over, these women still have an epic struggle ahead of them to secure the rights and equality that they are due.

A NEW, MORE COMPLICATED PHASE For indeed, the Arab Spring is in a new stage, whose final outcome is undetermined and may remain so for years. On the one hand, there has been a remarkable transformation in the region’s political dynamics, with states losing much of their invincibility and people gaining new leverage and power. In Egypt, for example, almost 30 years of martial law ended, and the first truly free elections in decades were held. But on the other hand, democratic reforms in Egypt and elsewhere have not yet been consolidated in new, popularly supported political institutions. Creating those institutions, as well as the democratic habits and mindset that should underpin them, will take years. There are other challenges in this phase of the Arab Awakening. In many states, including Egypt, Tunisia and Iraq, Islamist parties have gained new prominence and powers through elections. Secular-oriented Muslims, women and Christians are all alarmed, concerned that the energized Islamist trend will mean hard times ahead for them. In the bellwether country of Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood and even more conservative Islamist parties took nearly 70 percent of the vote in recent parliamentary elections.

This legislative perch means that Islamists will have a major say in rewriting Egypt’s constitution, a process set to begin in July after presidential elections. The Islamist surge in the past year has raised fears about the possible onset of a new type of dictatorial regime. At the same time, the Islamists also face their greatest test. After decades in opposition, they now must prove their capability as rulers, delivering services and demonstrating that they can create a more just political and economic order. Meanwhile, the openness created by the Arab Spring offers an opportunity for something that has been badly needed for decades in Arab societies: a serious, honest debate between secular-minded Muslims and Islamists over the key question in today’s Middle East: What is the proper role of Islam in the public life of a modern Muslim state? The absence of a consensus on this matter is a major reason for political instability in Arab countries. Another challenge in this second, more difficult phase of the Arab Spring is economics, with Egypt the most worrisome case. Its tourist industry has been decimated and foreign confidence in its economic prospects is near zero, dampening investment. A crash of Egypt’s economy could bring an end to the political advances wrought by the Arab Spring.

Events of last year have also unleashed waves of sectarian, religious and ethnic strife across the region. Christians have been murdered in Egypt and Iraq. Sunni-Shiite tensions have spiked across the region. And separatist tendencies based on tribal or ethnic affiliations, have appeared in Iraq, Yemen and Libya. The Arab Spring has also created new uncertainty for Israel. With governments now forced to pay more attention to public opinion than before, most will be less willing to bow to U.S. prodding to make nice to Israel. Egypt especially, which had been almost a puppet of Washington in its dealings with Israel, has already shown that it will not be as pliant as before. Events of the past year have also changed the equation for the United States, whose popularity in the region is at a despairingly low ebb because of the Iraqi occupation and pro-Israel bias of its foreign policy. The long-running quarrel between Washington and Cairo over U.S.-funded nonprofits operating in Egypt underscored the sensitivities of Cairo’s new rulers and the potential for a dangerous rupture in relations. So the Arab journey begun more than a year ago is far from over, with an obstacle-strewn road lying ahead.

If economic prospects do not brighten, if Arab youth continue to face high unemployment, or if ethnic, sectarian or religious violence soars, dictatorship may return as people tire of being hungry, jobless or insecure in their own home. Overcoming these challenges and creating new, democratic cultures and institutions are the tasks that now demand attention and endurance. A journalist, Murphy is currently a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. Murphy was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting (1991) and the George Polk Award for Foreign Reporting (1990) for her coverage of Iraqi-occupied Kuwait and subsequent 1990-91 Gulf War. She was the Cairo bureau chief for the Washington Post. She also authored the book Passion for Islam: Shaping the Modern Middle East: The Egyptian Experience, Scribner (2002).

Arab Spring Facts You Should Know – Add Your Own | Middle East Voices Arab Spring Facts You Should Know – Add Your Own Tweet Nearly everyone has been following daily news reports for more than a year now of what’s commonly called the “Arab spring.” But it’s easy to lose sight of the composite picture of events in the region or the historical perspective. Here are some tidbits explaining the basics. But please add your own factoids in the comment field below. • The term, “Arab spring,” is a Western construct. Most Arabs and the local press use other descriptions: revolution, uprising, awakening, renaissance, and Arab citizen revolt. • The term “Arab spring” was first used long before the events of the past year. It first appeared in 2003 in a New York Times Magazine article, “Dreaming of Democracy,” by George Packer. The first Arab writer to use it was Egyptian Saad Eddin Ibrahim. He wrote in February, 2005: “If seriously implemented, these steps [proposed Egyptian reforms] will transform Mubarak’s legacy.

Along with events in Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine, it may well usher in an Arab spring of freedom, one long overdue.” • Many consider the real beginning of the “Arab spring” to be April 6, 2008, when a textile-worker strike in the Egyptian city of Mahalla al-Kobra was organized through by means of the then-fledgling Facebook platform. An estimated 70,000 workers across the country protested in support of the workers’ demands for better pay and lower food prices. Here are some facts about the countries and rulers generally associated with the “Arab spring:” • More than 10 countries in North Africa and the Middle East, which have had large public protests in the past year, some peaceful. Among the more prominent are Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Syria and Yemen. • Three countries’ rulers – those of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya - have been forced from office. Cumulatively, they had been in power for a total of 95 years. • Protests in Yemen and Syria are against leaders who have been in office 44 years. Together, their families have ruled the countries for a total of 73 years.

• An estimated 34,500 people have died during protests so far. About 60,000 or more have been injured. The vast majority of deaths and injuries have occurred in Libya. • During the turmoil, approximately 600,000 people have been internally displaced or relocated to other countries. What other facts do you think the world should know? Feel free to add some in the comments below. BBC News - Arab uprising: Country by country - Libya Arab uprising: Country by country - Libya Aged 84 In power since 2006 "We had a clean revolution. The former president turned out to be a coward. He just ran away. Not like the others - like the poor Libyans, or in Syria - but it lit the fuse to all the other revolutions" Wassim Herissi, radio DJ "Our country's condition was getting worse and worse. There was corruption, torture, injustice, inequality and no freedom. Someone had to stand up and say 'enough is enough'" Ahmed Raafat Amin, protester "It's freedom. There's no Gaddafi, unbelievable. I feel the freedom.

I smell the freedom." Lamin el-Bijou, Banghazi resident "If they are trying to scare us, they are wrong. We will continue. Let them come and burn the whole square, we will not leave." Protester in Change Square, Sanaa "The Tunisians had already been freed. The Egyptians were on their way to be free. We thought it was our turn to be free too" Amer Matar, organiser of the first major protest in Syria "We don't fear death any more, let the army come and kill us to show the world what kind of savages they are" Protester, Pearl Square, Manama "I don't believe that liberal democracy will be put in place tomorrow but we have to start somewhere. Equality, the rule of law - the country is ready for this. We have to start the process" Dr Tawfik Alsaif, dissident campaigner "They dare to voice criticism that they haven't dared to before; they dare say we want a king who does not rule, but who is a symbol. They dare to say and discuss this.

Before it was not permitted" Mohamed El-Boukili, Moroccan Association for Human Rights "One day this will be bigger than Tahrir Square - but not today. We will keep returning every week though until things begin to change and Algeria has democracy" Young protester at a rally "We have to keep the pressure on this government. We are in the streets and we'll stay in the streets until we see all these demands working on the ground" Muhannad Sahafiin, protester

Question: In the Arab Spring which country's uprising was called the Jasmine Revolution?
Answer: TUNISIA