ABSTRACT
In January 2011, a young, unemployed university graduate in Tunisia, harassed by police for street vending without a license, doused himself with flammable liquid and set himself on fire. Mohamed Bouazizi’s act of resistance and subsequent death triggered protests across the country that, following a 23-year rule, drove President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and his extended family out of the country. The protests proved contagious for Egypt and Libya, similarly ending the 30-year tenure of President Hosni Mubarak and the 42year reign of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, while also moving across North Africa and the Middle East in what became known as the Arab Spring.
