Mohamed
Bouazizi was the man credited with causing the Arab Spring. Because
his father had died when he was young, Mohamed barely finished high
school before it fell to him to support his family. The main
breadwinner for his mother and several siblings, he could only find
work in his rural Tunisian town as a fruit-and-vegetable vendor; he
barely made a living, but he fared better than many in a country
where the unemployed are often university graduates.
In
December 2010, an official charged Bouazizi with selling his produce
without a license. In the ensuing argument, the official
insulted his dead father; when city hall refused to listen to his
appeal, he doused himself with fuel and set himself on fire in
protest. This one act did not exclusively provoke the Arab Spring;
rather it served as a catalyst for popular resentment of the status
quo.
For more information, see http://bit.ly/u3M2XT.
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