The Arab Spring One Year On: Eight Writers Reflect (Plus: Slideshow)
“Arab Spring”, “Egyptian Revolution” and “Tahrir Square” are terms that we have come to associate firmly with the events of the past year, the inciting incidence being the toppling of Tunisian president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, on 14 January 2011. Yet, these terms have not been vanquished from our global consciousness, and neither have the events they signify been resolved.
In the following piece in the Mail & Guardian, eight writers – including Egypt’s Laila Lalami – reflect on the Arab Spring, one year on:
Laila Lalami
What I will always treasure about 2011 is the taste of freedom. Having grown up in a dictatorship, I relished the sight of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali squirming in his seat last January, clearly at a loss for words, unsure what he should do to stem the tide of change in Tunisia.
I knew right away that the Tunisian revolution would inspire democracy activists in North Africa and the Middle East.
In my country, Morocco, it led to the birth of the February 20 Movement, a coalition of young activists of diverse and even divergent political convictions, but who share the same goal: turning Morocco into a parliamentary monarchy, where the king reigns but does not govern. Almost immediately, the regime pushed back against the movement by calling its members atheists, separatists, Islamists, agents provocateurs funded by the West and other sobriquets designed to isolate them from the mainstream.
The Mail & Guardian piece is accompanied by a slideshow which documents the Egyptian revolution:
Book details
- The Umma and the Dawla: The Nation-State and the Arab Middle East by Tamim Al-Barghouti
EAN: 9780745327709
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- Secret Son by Laila Lalami
EAN: 9780670918294
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- I Was Born There, I Was Born Here by Mourid Barghouti
EAN: 9781408815588
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- Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape by Raja Shehadeh
EAN: 9781861978998
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- Signifying Loss: Toward a Poetics of Narrative Mourning by Nouri Gana
EAN: 9781611480344
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- I Killed Scheherazade: Confessions of an Angry Arab Woman by Joumana Haddad
EAN: 9780863564277
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Photo courtesy Padre Steve
Apr
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