The Arab Spring, 10 years later

Today, Explained

Vox

Politics, Daily News, News

4.3 • 10.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 February 2021

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ten years ago, a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire and set off a revolution across the Middle East and North Africa. The Independent’s Borzou Daragahi says the Arab Spring never ended. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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1:10.5	One day in December of 2010, December 17th, a young fruit vendor named Muhammad Buazizi in central
1:32.0	Tunisia got into a spat with a cop and the cop ordered him to close his fruit vending stand and in
1:40.9	a sort of act of desperation and humiliation, he poured gasoline on himself and set himself on
1:48.8	fire and just sort of object desperation at his plight. And he didn't die right away.
1:56.8	He lingered on for weeks, but his plight and what he did inspired protests across Tunisia.
2:05.2	They kept growing and growing and growing. The president of Tunisia back then, a thug named
2:11.6	Zina Badin Ben Ali. He tried to placate the people he made speeches. He visited Muhammad Buazizi in
2:18.8	the hospital. That picture was shocking. You could see nothing of Buazizi. He was run by band-aids
2:27.4	like a mummy. Eventually, Muhammad Buazizi died from his injuries and the revolution grew in
2:34.1	Tunisia and eventually the military pulled the plug on him. They refused to intervene in protests.
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