Causal Analysis of the Arab Spring

Causal Analysis of the Arab Spring On 17 December 2010, 26-year-old jobless Mohammed Bouazizi, frustrated and ashamed by the public humiliation inflicted by a Tunisian female municipal officer and her asides who confiscated the fruit and vegetables he was selling from a street stall and slapped his face in the process, set himself on fire and passed away a few days later. As an aftermath of this incident, a huge wave of protests over unemployment and social issues sparked out in Tunisia, forcing then-president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down from his position after 23 years in power. Following this event, activists and ordinary people started to head out onto streets in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and other Arab sub-regions and societies, demanding democracy, social justices, dignity, and freedom. Ultimately, an unprecedented revolutionary wave of nonviolent and violent demonstrations, protests, riots, and civil wars known as Arab Spring, or many may call it Arab Awakening, has spread across the entire Arab World, overthrowing handfuls of tyrants and authoritarian regimes that, for decades, had been taking control over the area. Behind the actual uprisings were many and long gathering root causes. For decades, Arab people had faced repression of free speech, human rights abuses, economic mismanagement, corruption, and stifling of political dissent. Social justice and human dignity were also not respected in most countries. Furthermore, this area of 300 million people was producing an unprecedented youth population, with around two-thirds of the total population below 29 years of age. At the same time, this young generation was annoyed by 25 percent unemployment, frustrated by diminished dreams, motivated greater personal freedoms, and equipped with technological tools of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. In addition to that, international influences from Europe and the United States, actors who have long been desiring for the abundant energy

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