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ARAB SPRING
Arab Spring is widely known as the first cyber revolution across the world , but it probably won’t be
the last. A wave of revolutionary spread across the Arab world. Millions of people took to the
streets demanding dignity, democracy, and social justice. There was mass mobilizations on an
unprecedented scale in recent history that took place in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and
Syria, and transformed social and political dynamics across the whole region. A politics of hope
became possible as a result of this.The Arab Spring Timeline began in Tunisia . Back then was a
country that was known for corruption under the rule of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali for more
than two decades.
On a December day in 2010, A produce vendor in Tunisia called Mohamed Bouzizi stood in front of
a Government office and set himself on fire killing himself .His actions helped spark a revolutionary
uprising . A movement expands as a result of Bouzizi's action . He inspired and sparked a tunisia
revolution in which protesters armed themselves with cell phones allowing the protest to spread
social media speed on January 11th the following year . A week after bouzizi's death Tunisia's
Government fell apart and then president ben ali was disgraced , he later fled the country to Saudi
Arabia
Ben Ali’s control over the press and internet quickly became apparent. His own Wikipedia page was
blocked on the country’s internet service providers, along with the web pages of countless human
rights organizations, opposition blogs, twitters, and newspaper articles.
Although much of the revolution was hardly covered by mainstream media, Bouazizi’s desperate act
finally gave citizens the courage, and a good reason, to speak up. In just a matter of weeks, a regime,
which had enjoyed 23 years in power come to an end. The phenomenon did not remain confined to
Tunisia’s boundaries. The ruptures of the events in Tunisia seemed to echo elsewhere , the so called
“Tunisian wind” swept across North Africa and the Middle East, and began a great chain of unrest.
Although events did not occur in an identical fashion to those witnessed in Tunisia, it seemed that
people across the Arab world were actively taking the initiative to overthrow their autocratic
governments. Modern technology played a part in this as social media websites such as Facebook
and Twitter enabled the flames of discontent to be fanned and spread the news to an observing
world. To date, there has been a further revolution in Egypt; internal violence in Libya; major
protests in Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Oman and Yemen; and comparatively
minor protests in Kuwait, In Egypt, it seems that, for now, rule of the country still lies with the
military rather than the people after Mubarak’s fall
There has been several factors that has been considered to be the main reason why this uprising took
place .One of the key threads throughout the protests in the Middle East and North Africa is the
issue of economic frustrations by citizens in the region. For years, many have criticized their
governments for doing little to help alleviate high poverty and unemployment. Many of these
countries were facing high unemployment rates, and particularly among educated youth populations.
These conditions of poverty and unemployment were one factor that led to frustrations with the
ruling regimes, and ultimately the protests against those governments.
Authoritarian Regimes in the Middle East is also one of the key threads throughout the protest One
common factor in all of the cases is the repressive authoritarian regimes of all of the countries
discussed , Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt, Gaddhafi in Libya, Al Assad in Syria, and
Abdullah Saleh in Yemen had all consolidated their political power, limited any opposition voices,
and their regimes carried out numerous human rights abuses against their citizens..
Social media has been argued to have played a role in the Arab Spring. Just how big of a role has
been a point of disagreement amongst scholars which is discussed below. Many have argued that
social media platforms allowed individuals to promote their content such as political messages, as
well as logistics of protests where they will be held, what time, etc. Furthermore, some have
suggested that social media also played an important role in building a shared identity and purpose
among critics of the regime. Dissidents often feel alone and powerless. Social media helped to
overcome these feelings of isolation and provided many thousands of Egyptians with a sense of
connection to the noble cause of transforming their country .We have discuss the role of social
media with regards to the Arab Uprisings in more detail her
The aftermath of the Arab Spring brought about Postive and negative impactation .Whiles some of
the Arab Spring protest did result in regime changes ,not all of them brought about positive change
for the working class people like bouzizi in some cases the uprising was coopted by religious
extremers like Isis , when embrased the revolution on circular arab regimes through their own
agenda as result when government top hold places like syria and iraq rebel groups steps in to feel
the void using strong arm tactics and even terrorism .. in Syria civil war result in the death of half a
million people stocking the fires of unrest ... along with political and stability in economic
stagnation in neigbouring countries ,the syrian civil war has also lead to massive refugee crises in
the region while the arab spring reveals how fast the revulotion fueled by technology can unfold it
also ones again proved how complicated revolutions can be . While the uprising in Tunisia led to
some improvements in the country from a human-rights perspective, not all of the nations that
witnessed such social and political upheaval in the spring of 2011 changed for the better.