2015 Peace Nobel Committee RewardsTunisians' Efforts!

​And the prize goes to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet:
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http://www.africanewshub.com/news/3982351-le-prix-nobel-de-la-paix-ouvre-la-voie-a-un-outsider-du-monde-arabe

​​From left to right: Mr. Abdessatar Ben Moussa, president of the Tunisian Human Rights League, Ms. Ouided Bouchamaoui, president of the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade, and Handicrafts  (UTICA), Mr. Hocine Abassi, secretary general of the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT),  and Mr. Fadhel Mahfoudh, from the National Order of Lawyers. 

​On December 17, 2010 a street vendor by the name of Mohamed Bouazizi (29) set himself on fire in front of the governor’s building in his native city of Sidi Bouzid. Both police and municipality had harassed and ridiculed him for many years, most likely because he had failed to bribe them. One day, they confiscated Bouazizi’s vegetable cart and deprived him of his livelihood. Who could have predicted that the self-immolation of this man, who felt his dignity couldn’t be otherwise restored, was going to spark a revolution? 
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​http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20151009000130

Tunisians recognized themselves in Bouazizi. He became a symbol of a nation that has long been denied freedom, economic opportunities, and the chance to shape its own destiny. Poor and rich, workers and professionals, intellectuals and illiterates, countryside and urban populations, they all took to the street. As this Tunisian woman wrote: ‘The Tunisian is free, dignified, Arab, Muslim, Jew, atheist, secular, open-minded, tolerant, and loves his country.’

http://benillouche.blogspot.com/2013/08/la-tunisie-au-bord-de-la-guerre-civile.html

Perhaps the word most frequently used in Tunisian mass protestations was ‘Dégage!’ (get out). All of Tunisia was in awe when then President Ben Ali actually stepped down on January 14, 2011, only 10 days after Bouazizi’s death. This ended a 23-year dictatorship and the systematic siphoning of the country’s resources by Ben Ali and his extended family. Little Tunisia became the birth place of the Arab Spring. Tunisian singer Emel Mathlouthi, whom I was lucky to meet at the University of Hawai'i in October 2014, expressed the prevailing sentiment of her nation in her song ‘Kelmti Hurra’ (My Word is Free), which became the anthem of the Arab Spring.


Click here for the original video that went viral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a77s097Qvw
and here for another video used in Egypt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKNGG4UFgJk
Both videos have English subtitles. Images, lyrics, and music are stunning.

Other revolutions and mass protestations followed, in Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and many more countries. In response, some governments reshuffled their cabinets, while others became even more repressive. No other Arab nation achieved actual, positive change, while Tunisia’s own path to democracy became fraught with danger right from the beginning. The first free elections brought the previously banned Nahda party to power in October 2011. Their members and followers are believed to be on the whole moderate Islamists. However, the propelling of an Islamist party to highest government levels emboldened more radical elements. The College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Tunis, known for its liberal views, was thus hijacked by Islamists. They locked up the Dean of the humanities, a fine scholar specializing in the history of Tunisia’s Jews, for refusing to create separate courses for men and women and rejecting the presence of fully veiled women in the classrooms.[1] Islamists also replaced the Tunisian flag with the black standard reintroduced by the Taliban and since then adopted by al-Qaeda and, more recently, by ISIS/ISIL. An eerie photograph shows university student Khaoula Rachidi asking an Islamist in an incredibly courageous act of defiance to restore the country’s flag on March 7, 2012.  

http://www.businessnews.com.tn/Khaoula-Rachidi,-d%C3%83%C2%A9fenseuse-du-drapeau-tunisien,-BRAVO-!-(mise-%C3%83%C2%A0-jour),520,29780,4

In the following year, opposition politicians Chokri Belaid and Mohamed Brami were assassinated. The Jasmine Revolution was about to be appropriated by radical Islamists. That’s when Hocine Abassi, head of Tunisia’s General Labor Union made an unexpected overture to the Confederation of Industry, Trade, and Handicrafts (which represents the employers’ interests) in Summer 2013, asking for their cooperation in helping to negotiate between the political parties. The Human Rights’ League and the Order of the Lawyers’ joined them shortly. The four groups together achieved the near impossible, i.e., bring Islamists and secularists of different colors to face each other and make concessions. What these groups exemplified was civil society at its best.The Nahda party stepped down with the understanding that it would nevertheless continue to play a role in Tunisia’s political life, and a new constitution saw the light of day which, among other things, preserved the language of equality between men and women rather than introduce the notion of complementarity as the Islamists would have had it.

And yes, that delicate yet resolute work of mediation that pulled a nation back from the brink of civil war deserved the Nobel Prize for Peace. Tunisians were euphoric when the news broke. They knew that they had all been recognized for their courage and determination. 

http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/09/tunisian-quartet-wins-nobel-peace-prize-as-lone-standout-in-violence-wracked-region/

​It was an honor bestowed upon their entire nation. More importantly, Tunisians understood that for once the world was paying close attention to their struggle for democracy and determined to support them.[2]

Originally posted on October 11, 2015.
Last updated on June, 7, 2021.
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[1] http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/salafist-intimidation-campaign-threatens-young-democracy-in-tunisia-a-870680-2.html (downloaded on Nov. 11, 2015).
[2] Tunisia has also been recognized when the Sakharov Prize issued by the European Parliament was awarded posthumously to Mohamed Bouazizi together with representatives from Libya, Egypt, and Syria in 2011.(http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/content/20111014FCS29297/4/html/The-Arab-Spring-wins-Sakharov-Prize-2011)
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