'I Started The Arab Spring. Now Death Is Everywhere, and Extremism Blooming' - Telegraph

4/16/2018 'I started the Arab Spring.
Now death is everywhere, and extremism blooming' - Telegraph
'I started the Arab Spring. Now death is everywhere, and extremism blooming'
Faida Hamdy confiscated a vegetable stall in Tunisia five years ago today. Neither she nor the
rest of the world could have imagined the consequences
Tunisian municipal officer Faida Hamdy Photo: AFP
By Radhouane Addala in Sidi Bouzeid and Richard Spencer, Middle East Editor
6:00AM GMT 17 Dec 2015
It is hardly surprising that when Faida Hamdy wonders whether she is responsible for everything that
happened after her moment of fame she is overwhelmed.
Mrs Hamdy was the council inspector who, five years ago today confiscated the vegetable stall of a street
vendor in her dusty town in central Tunisia.
In despair, that young man set himself on fire in a protest outside the council offices. Within weeks, he
was dead, dozens of young Arab men had copied him, riots had overthrown his president, and the Arab
Spring was under way.
As the world marks the anniversary, Syria and Iraq are in flames, Libya has broken down, and the twin
evils of militant terror and repression stalk the region.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/tunisia/12054657/I-started-the-Arab-Spring.-Now-death-is-everywhere-and-extremism-blooming.ht
4/16/2018 'I started the Arab Spring. Now death is everywhere, and extremism blooming' - Telegraph
Demonstrators face Egyptian police forces in the streets leading to Tahrir Square Photo: Julian Simmonds?The Telegraph
“Sometimes I wish I’d never done it,” Mrs Hamdy told The Telegraph, in her only interview to mark the
occasion.
Hers is a voice that has been rarely heard: the family of the young man, Mohammed Bouazizi, became
unwilling celebrities in the weeks after his lingering death, but a nervous regime arrested Mrs Hamdy
when the protests began.
By the time she was acquitted of all charges and released, President Zine el-Abedine Ben Ali had fallen,
and media attention was focused on Egypt, Libya and Syria.
“I feel responsible for everything,” she went on. Her voice was shaky as she spoke of the traumatic
consequences, five years that have transformed the Middle East but seemingly changed very little in poor,
provincial towns like Sidi Bouzeid.
“Sometimes, I blame myself and say it is all because of me. I made history since I was the one who was
there and my action contributed to it but look at us now. Meanwhile, Tunisians are suffering as always.”
Mohammed Bouazizi’s death triggered some deep nerve in the Arab world. Many myths were told about
his own story and that of Mrs Hamdy, as there were about the nature of subsequent uprisings and
downfalls, but there remains a basic truth underlying his experience and that of many others.
Demonstrators turn over a burned out car after reclaiming the side streets near Tahrir Square Photo: Julian Simmonds/The Telegraph
Corruption, stifling bureaucracy, and repressive police states were holding back a largely youthful
population across the region, and their victims had little way to make their frustrations felt other than
extreme actions.
Subsequent studies found that self-immolation had already become a common act in Tunisia, accounting
already for 15 per cent of all burns cases in Tunis hospitals. Within six months, more than 100 Tunisians
had followed suit, and scores more around the Arab world, from Morocco to Saudi Arabia and Iraq, had
also set themselves on fire.
Still, not many observers could have imagined the chaos that would ensue, even when Mr Ben Ali gave
way to weeks of protest and boarded a plane for Saudi Arabia with his wife and a large chunk of the
country’s gold reserves.
Next Hosni Mubarak of Egypt went, after 18 days of telegenic demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Then Col Muammar Gaddafi was forced out, after protests turned into civil war and then international
war, with the West’s air forces joining in.
By the time he was bayoneted and shot in October 2011, Syria was in flames, and the West was starting to
vacillate about its role, with effects that can still be seen today. Libya, Syria and much of Iraq remain
failed states. Egypt is on the brink.
In the process a social uprising had turned into a conflict between Islamism, part peaceful, part violent,
and secular governments and politicians; and then between religious sects, as Sunni and Shia turned on
each other.
Despite Mrs Hamdy’s despair at the poverty that remains in Tunisia, the country is still seen as the sole
success. It has had two general elections in the years since, with a moderate Islamist party, Ennahda,
winning the first, before stepping into opposition in the face of an alliance between secular parties that
included members of the former regime last year.
"When I look at the region and

Much of that is down to a deal negotiated by Rached Ghannouchi,
my country, I regret it all.
Death everywhere and Ennahda’s head, who agreed to give up power despite the party’s
extremism blooming, and electoral strength.
killing beautiful souls"
He told The Telegraph this week that he and his colleagues had
Faida Hamdy
decided to compromise after considering fundamental issues of
what democracy meant.
“Majoritarian rule, 50 per cent of the vote, is not sufficient,” he said. He said he had always known, from
the start of Tunisia’s political “transition”, that he would have to seek alliances, and in the first
government Ennahda ruled alongside a centre-left secular party.
“We thought having a government with a majority would be enough,” he said. “Then we realised we
needed more: we needed consensus.”
The difference between Tunisia and Egypt here is stark. While, as he points out, Egypt, Syria and Iraq are
all more complex and difficult countries than Tunisia, the fact remains that Ennahda downplayed Islamist
demands when the country drew up a constitution, the resulting document winning 94 per cent of the
votes in the country’s constitutional assembly.
In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood, which won the presidency by 52 per cent to 48 per cent, tried to force
through an Islamist constitution by decree. It was toppled by a coup seven months later.
Syria and Libya, meanwhile, appear not to know the meaning of the word consensus.
Mr Ghannouchi, perhaps oddly, is still optimistic about the future of democracy in the Arab world. “The
year 2011 was a leap from tyranny in the Arab world,” he said. “History shows that the transition to
democracy is not always linear – the transitions that took place in France and Britain took over 100
years.”
"My brother is a lover of life

Whether the Arab world can last that long is another question. Mr
and he would have rejected
both the stupid politicians and Bouazizi’s family, whose initial fame turned to hostility in their
death-loving extremists" community, could not: his mother and one sister moved to
Samia Bouazizi Canada, while another, Samia, now works in Tunis. She is the
first to say that her brother’s death has been hijacked by politics
and ideology.
“His death is destiny and I accept it,” she said at a café in the city. “But if he were here he would be the
first in the street to ask for more dignity.
“My brother created something that greedy people are trying to destroy in the region. My brother is a
lover of life and he would have rejected both the stupid politicians and death-loving extremists. My
brother died for dignity not for wealth or an ideology.”
At the end of all the wars, few may end up remembering either him or Mrs Hamdy. The two began at
opposite sides, but both now seem telescoped out of proportion by a history that became perverse beyond
all recognition.
“Mohammed Bouazizi and I are both victims,” Mrs Hamdy said. “He lost his life and my life is not the
same any more.
“When I look at the region and my country, I regret it all. Death everywhere and extremism blooming, and
killing beautiful souls.”
A Refugee's Christmas Carol

As Christmas approaches, two children told us about spending it far from
home and family - and their hopes for Christmas yet to come
Enter
The Arab Spring: a year of revolution
17 December 2010
Vegetable seller sets
himself ablaze 14 January 2011
Tunisia
Tunisian president flees
Mohammed Bouazizi, a Tunisian Tunisia
vegetable peddler sets himself
ablaze (see picture above) in the
town of Sidi Bouzid after his cart
is confiscated by a policewoman
who slapped him and spat in his
face. The incident causes long-
simmering frustrations over
injustice, poverty and the greed
of the political elite to spill over ZINE EL ABIDINE BEN ALI NEXT TO HIS WIFE
LEILA (PHOTO: AFP/GETTY)
into protests, which are brutally
subdued. Bouazizi dies, but in his After nearly a month of protests,
act of self-immolation, the Arab and with public anger mounting
Spring is born. over the increasingly violent
response of the security forces,
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees the
country he had ruled for 24 years
11 February 2011 after senior generals tell him his
position is untenable. His hated
Egyptian president forced
from office wife, Leila Trabelsi, escapes too –
allegedly taking much of the
Egypt allegedly taking much of the
central bank's gold reserves with
her.
15 February 2011
Libyan protests turn violent
Libya
HOSNI MUBARAK (PHOTO: EPA)
Hosni Mubarak becomes the

second leader forced from office
after 30 years in power. Protests
in the wake of Tunisia's revolt
have spread through much of the
Arab world, but none gain
traction as quickly as in Egypt.
LIBYANS CARRY THE BODIES OF VICTIMS OF THE
Hundreds of protesters die at the VIOLENCE (PICTURE: AFP/ GETTY IMAGES)
hands of the security forces until
Protests that erupt in the east
the army steps in and urges
after the arrest of human rights
Mubarak to go, prompting wild
lawyers quickly turn violent after
celebrations in Cairo's Tahrir
the Gaddafi regime responds with
Square
massive force. Within three days,
opposition supporters are in
control of the second city of
14 March 2011 Benghazi and the government
sees massive defections.
Saudi and Gulf troops enter
Bahrain
Bahrain
17 March 2011
No-fly zone over Libya
Libya
The UN Security Council passes a

resolution imposing a no-fly zone
over Libya as Gaddafi's forces
close in on Benghazi and the
PHOTO: REUTERS
regime appears to threaten mass
Saudi Arabia and Gulf states send reprisals. Two days later, Nato
troops into Bahrain to prop up the warplanes and ships begin to
Sunni Al Khalifa monarchy after bombard army positions.
an uprising by the kingdom's
subjugated Shia majority. Dozens
of protesters are killed but the
West, which has vital, Iran-related 18 March 2011
security interests on the island, is Syrian protesters shot dead
subdued in its criticism and the
Syria
revolt is quelled.
3 June 2011
Yemeni president wounded
in palace bombing
Yemen
DEMONSTRATIONS IN SYRIA (PHOTO: REUTERS)
Government forces shoot dead

five protesters in southern city of
Deraa, marking the beginning of
an uprising across the country
against President Bashar al-
Assad. By October, 3,000 people
lie dead and fears of a civil war
MR SALEH WAS TAKEN TO A DEFENCE MINISTRY
HOSPITAL (PHOTO: AP) mount but Assad clings on amid
President Ali Abdullah Saleh is divisions in the international
wounded in a bombing on his community.
palace in the capital Sana'a. The
attack comes after widespread
protests, the killing of hundreds of
demonstrators and violent battles
3 August 2011
between army loyalists and Mubarak goes on trial
defectors. Saleh is evacuated for Egypt
treatment in Saudi Arabia but
confounds expectations by
returning to Yemen, where he
repeats promises to resign that
few believe.
21 August 2011
EGYPT'S OUSTED PRESIDENT HOSNI MUBARAK
(PHOTO: REUTERS)
Libyan rebels take Tripoli
Libya The country's army rulers bow to
mounting public pressure by
putting Hosni Mubarak on trial.
The former dictator is wheeled
into court on a stretcher,
accompanied by his two hated
sons. Arabs across the Middle
East watch the spectacle in
wonder and pride.
LIBYAN REBEL FIGHTERS (PHOTO:

REUTERS/ZOHRA BENSEMRA)
Libyan rebels take the capital city 20 October 2011

Tripoli with surprising ease after
Col Gaddafi killed in Sirte
months of near stalemate and
Libya
with international criticism of
Nato's bombing campaign

mounting. But the Gaddafi family
flees and the dictator's birthplace
of Sirte stubbornly holds out
against the rebels.
© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2018

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'I Started The Arab Spring. Now Death Is Everywhere, and Extremism Blooming' - Telegraph

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4/16/2018 'I started the Arab Spring.

Now death is everywhere, and extremism blooming' - Telegraph

Tunisian municipal officer Faida Hamdy Photo: AFP

"When I look at the region and

"My brother is a lover of life

A Refugee's Christmas Carol

The Arab Spring: a year of revolution

Hosni Mubarak becomes the

The UN Security Council passes a

Government forces shoot dead

LIBYAN REBEL FIGHTERS (PHOTO:

Libyan rebels take the capital city 20 October 2011

Nato's bombing campaign

© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2018

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