Literature

On December 16, 2010, Mohammed Bouazizi was an unknown 26-year-old street vendor trying to make a living in the Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid. It wasn’t an easy life. Selling vegetables from a wooden cart isn’t exactly lucrative. And rampant government corruption and regular mistreatment by the police made earning a living all the more difficult.

On December 17, a cantankerous policewoman decided to confiscate Bouazizi’s cart, his vegetables and his livelihood. Although he offered to pay the fine, the policewoman refused his offer and “allegedly slapped the scrawny young man, spat in his face, and insulted his dead father” (Time, Jan. 21, 2011).

Bouazizi then took his complaint to the local authorities, but they refused to see him.

This is when Bouazizi snapped. Within the hour, he returned to the municipal building and proceeded to calmly and quietly douse himself with fuel. He then pulled out a match and set himself on fire.

Needless to say, Bouazizi finally got the attention of Tunisian authorities!

Bouazizi didn’t just set himself ablaze that day. He set the city of Sidi Bouzid ablaze with massive protests and riots, then many other cities in Tunisia, and ultimately the whole nation of Tunisia. By the end of January 2011, the revolution had claimed the government of longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.