Skip to main content
Menu
♥ Donate
eventREF E-0120746Revised

Event record

Tunisia: The self-emulation of Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi sparks the Jasmin Revolution

Date
17 Dec 2010
Updated
30 Sep 2019
Tunisia: The self-emulation of Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi sparks the Jasmin Revolution

Twenty-six-year-old street vendor, Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself alight after local Tunisian police confiscated his wheelbarrow full of fresh produce and publically humiliated him. Bouazizi, in his frustration with the lack of opportunity in the state under then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s 23-year presidency, died in Ben Arous 14 days later. Bouazizi’s death, however, acted as a trigger for sparks the Jasmin Revolution during which Ben Ali steps down as president in the face of mass uprisings across the country. The Tunisian Jasmin Revolution spreads into neighbouring countries with uprisings in Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and influenced the Sudanese succession.

Search events by date

What happened on your birthday?
View more events from this day

How we know this

  1. 01Noor, N., 2011. International Affairs Review. [Online] Available at: https://www.iar-gwu.org/node/257 [Accessed 20 March 2016].

Last updated · 30 Sep 2019

Cite this entry

South African History Online. (2016, April 11). Tunisia: The self-emulation of Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi sparks the Jasmin Revolution. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0120746

South African History Online (2016) 'Tunisia: The self-emulation of Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi sparks the Jasmin Revolution', South African History Online, 11 April. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0120746 (Accessed: 5 August 2026).

South African History Online, Tunisia: The self-emulation of Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi sparks the Jasmin Revolution [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0120746, (accessed 5 August 2026).

"Tunisia: The self-emulation of Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi sparks the Jasmin Revolution." South African History Online, 11 Apr. 2016, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0120746. Accessed 5 Aug. 2026.

South African History Online. "Tunisia: The self-emulation of Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi sparks the Jasmin Revolution." South African History Online. April 11, 2016. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0120746.

Further reading

Mooivallei, Dairy Farm Place

Mooivallei, Dairy Farm

Mooivallei, meaning “beautiful valley”, is named after the picturesque town of Bonnievale – a place synonymous...
Popular Content

SAHO is free because readers fund it. Donate →