Mohamed Bouazizi Self-Immolation (2010)

Fri Dec 17, 2010

Image

Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi (1984 - January 4th, 2011) was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on this day in 2010, an act which became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring more broadly.

Bouazizi’s self-immolation was in response to the confiscation of his wares by police, mistreatment by city officials, and desperation of his own economic condition. Anti-government protests in Tunisia began within hours of his self-immolation. In 2011, Bouazizi was posthumously awarded the Sakharov Prize for his contribution to “historic changes in the Arab world”