TUNIS, Tunisia — Exactly one year ago, in a hardscrabble town in Tunisia’s arid interior, the death knell sounded for the decades-old system of dictatorships across the Arab world.
With a desperate act of self-immolation, a 26-year-old Sidi Bouzid fruit-seller unwittingly unleashed a year of turmoil that toppled at least three autocrats in a region once thought to be immune to democracy.
Tunisia’s new leaders together with thousands of others took part in a festival starting Saturday in the town honoring the vendor, the revolution and the protesters whose anger snowballed into a nationwide and then regionwide phenomenon.
The changes in the Arab world over the past 12 months cannot be overstated. A region synonymous with stagnant authoritarian republics and monarchies is rife with change.
The biggest winners so far appear to be the long-repressed Islamist parties, which didn’t always lead the revolts but in subsequent elections in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco were the best-organized and least tainted by the old regimes.
As the country that started the Arab Spring, Tunisia appears to be the furthest along in its transformation, having held its freest elections ever that brought to power a moderate Islamist party that most had thought had been oppressed out of existence.
A human-rights activist, Moncef Marzouki, is president, and an Islamist politician who was jailed by former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali for 15 years is the prime minister at the head of a coalition of left, liberal and religious parties.
Fiery act ignited revolt
One year ago, Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire in front of the Sidi Bouzid town hall after he was slapped and humiliated by a policewoman reprimanding him for selling his vegetables without a license. He suffered full-body burns and died soon afterward.
His act struck a chord in the impoverished interior of the country, where unemployment is estimated at 28 percent. The demonstrations began in Sidi Bouzid but soon spread.
At first it was just local unrest, until clandestinely shot videos started popping up on Facebook and other social networking sites, inspiring youths across the country.
And on Jan. 14, it was over. After Ben Ali’s army refused to shoot protesters and his security forces wavered, he fled to Saudi Arabia with his family.
Eleven days later, tens of thousands occupied Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Not even three weeks later, Egypt’s army too turned on its commander in chief and 82-year-old Hosni Mubarak, who resigned.
Four days later, protesters hit the streets in Libya’s second-largest city of Benghazi, while Yemen began experiencing demonstrations of its own.
One year later, many countries are freer, but the economic situation remains grim.
Tourist trade damaged
Tourists have been frightened away by the unrest, an economic crisis in Europe has damaged traditional export markets and the messy business of democracy has been slow to produce new governments.
Tunisia’s leaders have promised that the interior will no longer be neglected and they say they have drawn up plans to rebalance investment away from the coast.
“Mohammed Bouazizi restored the dignity to the Tunisian people,” said Marzouki, who struggled to promote human rights during Ben Ali’s long reign and was twice imprisoned. He promise to “restore joy to this long-marginalized region.”
