On the 17 December 2010, one month before Tunisian President Ben Ali was to step down, a street vendor in Sidi Bouzid set himself on fire in protest at the harassment and humiliation that he faced from municipal authorities. Mohammed Bouazizi’s heroic act of martyrdom sparked a revolution that spread across Tunisia and then throughout the Arab world.

The successful momentum of the revolution in Tunisia awoke a region that has suffered under a long line of authoritarian regimes. Arabs from all walks of life are standing up to their oppressors and through protest are redefining the power relationships which long governed Arab politics. Despite a decade spent in the west discussing the threat of Islamic terror, Arabs are not turning to transnational jihad, but a disciplined refusal of violence by citizens which is challenging national and international politics as we know it. Return to Arab Awakening

Voice of freedom is more powerful than any drone

Jaffar Al-Rikabi 4 October 2011
The killing of Anwar al-Awlaki has dealt Al-Qaeda a major blow, but the more profound challenge to the terrorist group emanates from the spirit of the Jasmine revolutions.

The fight over democratic norms in Egypt

Kevin Russell 22 September 2011
A relatively stable Egypt now has the challenge of establishing a legitimate democracy. This is a long journey, however, in a country where keeping the military and government honest has taken precedence over supporting a political party that might one day be in charge of government.

Part 2. Tunisie Profonde: spring, summer and the coming elections

Amanda Sebestyen 20 September 2011
On her return from Tunisia, the author kept in touch with some of the young people in the south, and began a diary recording their ongoing struggle. We publish as in Kasserine, talk is of a general strike and death threats in Tunis.

Tunisia: brief encounters, Part 1

Amanda Sebestyen 20 September 2011
The author, who travelled to Tunisia last April, recorded her multicultural experiences at a time of revolution to share, as requested, with the outside world. In Part Two, she has kept in touch with some of the young people in the south to update us on the grim realities of their ongoing struggle as the October elections approach.

Egypt's legal revolution

Tom Francis 17 August 2011
In post-revolutionary Egypt, many activists have shifted their attentions to drafting the next constitution, which they hope will deal a coup de grâce to the nation’s vestigial ills. But such efforts seem misplaced. Constitutions everywhere are seldom panaceas, and no legal document will right the country’s woes until the Emergency Law is abolished.

Why the Mubarak trial goes untelevised

Essam Badran 17 August 2011
Media hype created by the live TV broadcast of Mubarak’s trial has added extra stress to an already sensitive and highly complicated court case.

Egypt: nation, state, faith, and future

Tarek Osman 9 August 2011
The political tumult in Egypt continues as the six-month anniversary of the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak nears. The rising Islamist influence puts the possibility of a religious turn in the revolution on the agenda. But how real is this prospect? Tarek Osman assesses it by looking at the deeper forces that have shaped modern Egypt over the last two centuries.

Egypt shaped at the grass roots

Philip Marfleet 25 June 2011
While headlines in global media focus upon candidates for the presidency and new parties jostling for electoral advantage, the dynamics of change in Egypt are being shaped at the grassroots

Western complicity in the crimes of the Ben Ali regime

Corinna Mullin and Azadeh Shahshahani 24 June 2011
Often overlooked in the western press have been the collective, or one could say national, grievances of the Tunisian people, expressed as frustration at Tunisia’s lack of real sovereignty in a global order enforced by international institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank

Glimpsing the Tunisian Revolution

Giuseppe Caruso 24 June 2011
Tunisian activists, more than anything else, are proud of themselves for returning their country to global history, not as dependent or slave, but as empowered actor in the process of negotiating global values and institutions.

Tunisia: will democracy be good for women's rights?

Kristine Goulding 13 June 2011

History reveals an abundance of democratic paradoxes: cases in which progress on women’s rights regressed in the aftermath of revolution. Coming to terms with the battle between secularism and Islam – a dispute long silenced by Ben Ali’s rabidly secular policies – will require a redefinition of women’s rights. Are the secularists or Islamists ready for that step?

Egypt after the fall

Rowena McNaughton 13 June 2011
The Egyptian Association for Community Participation Enhancement, is a non-government and non-profit organisation dedicated to building capacity within Egyptian civil society. CIVICUS’ Media Officer speaks with local human rights activist, Nawara Belal, about the challenge.

Calling time on the January Revolution?

Ewan Stein 3 June 2011
The forces of 25 January will have to take a long-term view on completing the Egyptian revolution, as both the military and Islamist groups seem keen to consolidate gains

What Egypt should learn from Iraq

Zaid Al-Ali 21 April 2011
The Iraqi experience of creating a new constitution from political and social ruin offers lessons for Egypt, says Zaid Al-Ali.

Tackling corruption in revolutionary Egypt

Marc Michael 29 March 2011
"Corruption" is the word on every Egyptian's lips as the misuse of public funds and office is exposed from Mubarak downwards. The answer is to repeal the semi-privatisation of the state bureaucracy and introduce a minimum wage, argues Marc Michael

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"Mr. Ulrichsen believes that an article he wrote last summer "The U.A.E.: Holding Back the Tide," may have played a part in his blacklisting."
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Our Editors

Bassam Gergi

Bassam Gergi

Associate Editor of Arab Awakening is pursuing an M.Phil in Comparative Government at Oxford University

Mazen Zoabi

Mazen Zoabi

Translation Editor of Arab Awakening is a psychology graduate with an interest in film

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