Free Paper Sample on Tunisia

Introduction

With the majority of the people being the youth, they were the most affected groups with the declining economy, inflation and unemployment. Therefore, they were the major perpetrators of the revolution regime. The worsening conditions made the people to go to the streets without taking any precautionary measures or any other consideration of the possible bizarre outcomes that could be expected in such protests. They were driven by their desires to have better lives. According to Noueihed and Warren (2012), protests in the Arab Spring affected even those who were not interested in the changes. For instance, many people suffered due to the political unrest, there was a fall of economies, and civil wars began (Harsch, 2011). Despite some of the rebels succeeding in overthrowing various dictatorship governments, they failed to provide what they pledged in the course of demonstrations.

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Complex Shift

The Arab Spring caused a complex shift in the instability of the religion. People, especially the youth, wanted a change in the fastest way possible and taught that violence could be the quickest way (Harsch, 2011). Indeed it solved their problems though for a short while. The government of Tunisia was unhappy with the protests and put several measures to stop them. The demonstrators faced very violent responses from the authority and the military. They were beaten and harassed leading, to withdrawal. The government either used social media to curb the protests. The shutdown of some sites which the demonstrators could use to pass information was a big, hindrance (Wolfsfeld et al., 2013). Internet services were blocked, especially during the Main demonstrations.

The Arab Spring was a failure to those who thought that mayhem would reverse the authoritarian regimes and substitute them with democratic systems (Noueihed & Warren, 2012). Moreover, the revolution failed those who thought that the protests would bring about instant changes and an improvement in living standards. Indeed, instead of the Arab Spring helping to improve the matter, the countries that were undergoing political transitions suffered an economic strain (Gatward, 2015).

Literature Review

Major Contributors to the Beginning of the Arab SpringThere are various discussions and arguments brought forward by various authors on the issues surrounding the Arab Spring. Since the country was economically unstable before the revolution, the Human Rights Watch (2013) argues that issues such as inflation, unemployment and poor governance were the major causes of its occurrence. The Tunisian economic, social, and political status was deteriorating before the Arab Spring. Although the citizens of Tunisia hoped for the best after the Arab Spring, the situation only moved from better to worse (Ghanem, 2016). The economy suffered a decline due to the high level of unemployment. The youth actively participated in the Arab Spring; unfortunately, youth unemployment turns out to be among the highest in the world with, a rate of 36.26% in 2019 (Human Rights Watch, 2013). According to Ghanem (2016), most people are unemployed in Tunisia, and 85% of them are below 35 years. Many factors contribute to the persistently high level of unemployment in Tunisia. These factors include supply labor pressures whereby many people are looking for jobs, and willing to work than the public or private sector can hire.

Alicia (2019), also supports the above argument by articulating that, the Tunisian economy was not been able to create more jobs for its people. Those that the government created were not suitable to some groups like the elite, since they were mostly manual (Alicia, 2019). There were also strict rules and regulations govern the employment sector. Therefore many scholars argue that unemployment was part of the causes of the Arab Spring. The president owned many firms and used them as an opportunity to exploit the people. The Human Rights Watch identified corruption as another agent of the Arab Spring, President Ben Ali and his wife was exploitative and very corrupt. Corruption was an element of dissatisfaction among the people. As a result, the demonstrators wanted to stop the political class from the continual abuse of power. The people desired to have another president and overthrow the dictator out of power (Alicia, 2019). Firms and companies that were owned by the president could easily evade import tariffs to bring a negative implication to the people. Other investors in the private sector were highly taxed, and they were the main source of income to the exploitative government (Gatward, 2015). Luckily the Arab Spring led to a reduction in the evasion of taxes and decreased the wrong reporting of import tariffs.

Education

Ghanem (2016), gives insights to the situation of education in the Tunisia five years after the revolution, and gives a comparison to the previous periods. He noted that, the Tunisian children were under-educated (Ghanem, 2016). However, it is essential to note the roles played by the people’s culture in developing education. He noted various ways in which the government could improve education since independence Tunisia was still France’s colony and after the revolutions such as the Arab Spring that came much later. The author further argues that, during the country's independence, most people were on the frontline to fight for their rights, freedom, and equality among people of all economic statuses. In one way or another, this led to the improvement of education in urban families who educated their children.

Amar and Prashad (2013) received a backup from Carol Giacomo's article that appeared in The New York Times Sunday Review. AS Giacomo noted, through education, the gender gap had enormously reduced (Amar & Prashad, 2013). Propositioned among other arguments, divorce was enacted in a massive reform that was against polygamy and repudiation producing a minimum age for marriage hence putting a stop to early marriages that were being practiced by many Tunisian societies (Amar & Prashad, 2013). Non- Muslim women were not allowed to marry Muslim men and polygamy was highly practiced. Through this revolution, people reclaimed their rights for a good education, development, and holding superior political positions had a right to vote and hence acquired jobs in the topmost political positions.

Conclusion

The media played a critical role in the Arab Spring, it empowered the demonstrators by giving them the morale to push on. The media, also mobilized, influenced change, and shape the opinions of the people. Social media played an important role, the videos that were circulating on the platforms helped inform people about the ongoing injustices. For example, videos were going around of women being beaten and people being killed (Blemmer, 2011). The videos contributed to emotional mobilization hence triggering the demonstrations. Social media helped in the fast spread of the ideas of the Arab Spring in Tunisia and the neighboring countries.

According to Amar and Prashad (2013), Arab Spring also became a major souce of media content for the people in North Africa and the Middle East to air their grievances. The author further argues that in as much the media (Arab Spring) offered grounds for revolution; it nevertheless acted centrally in the absence of an open media at the time (Amar & Prashad, 2013).