Tunisia’s militant youth, whose courage brought down President Ben Ali, has been replaced by politicians talking about both free market capitalism and the Koran.
The Amilcar Notes (Part 4): Tunisia — Profoundly Islamic
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Fiction Blossoms into Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution
As I try to grasp the full meaning of the Tunisian Revolution and to gauge its future, I am looking at my desk where I have spread two issues of The New York Times, both featuring Tunisia on their front pages. The two issues are dated 23 years apart.
Mothers of the Jasmine Revolution
Like their revolutionary and brave Algerian sisters, who in the 1950s helped bring one of the most developed and vicious colonial armies to its knees and ushered the end of a longstanding European empire, les Tunisiennes challenged the premise that resistance, revolution, and war are the work of men alone. Defiantly, the women continued the resistance until Ben Ali “got the hell out.” Now that he’s gone, Tunisian women are appearing on Arab television and participating in the formation of neighborhood watch groups.
Who’s More Delusional? Former Tunisian President Ben Ali or Washington?
Ben Ali’s exile in Saudi Arabia, with whom Tunisia has an extradition treaty, is an uneasy one.
Arab Democracy Now!
The campaign against dictatorship in the Arab world has brought together some strange bedfellows. The Bush administration’s neoconservatives darkly dreamed of democracy promotion in the Middle East before the Iraq and Afghanistan quagmires became the stuff of nightmares. Sharing the same bed, but dreaming different dreams, have been the Muslim Brotherhood and its fellow Islamists who have long railed against the injustices of authoritarian regimes in locales such as Egypt, Syria, and the Gulf States. And now, of course, the predominantly young protestors of Tunisia have turned dream into reality by ousting their dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali after 23 years at the helm.
New York Times Finally Deigns to Cover Tunisia
The U.S. State Department needs to know whether a post-Ben Ali government would maintain Tunisia’s commitments to AFRICOM and support for extraordinary rendition.
Pro-Democracy Uprising Fails to Keep Washington From Backing Tunisian Dictatorship
When the uprisings began, the U.S. Congress saw fit to pass a budget resolution that included $12 million in security assistance to Tunisia’s regime.
Tunisia: Yezzi Fock (Enough!)
When young resister immolated himself, he likely took the political futures of the Tunisian president and his wife with him.
Inspiring Story of Tunisian Protests Ignored by Washington
Even though President Ben Ali and his wife have used privatization as an excuse to buy up state property at bargain basement prices, the U.S. still supports them.
Will the Tunisian President Go the Way of Ceausescu? (Part 3)
The end may be near for Ben Ali’s 23-year-reign, marked by a succession of human rights violations.