Post titleHow Revolution Turned Sour in the Birthplace of the Arab Spring

Independent UK - Not a day goes by for Manoubia Bouazizi when she does not think about her son with sorrow. "He was a dutiful boy, he had a long life ahead of him, he martyred himself for justice, for Tunisia, for his community," she declared. "People cannot forget that."

Her 26-year-old, street-trader son has been lodged in the world's memory, too, after his unhappy life and terrible death by self-immolation became the tragic symbol of a nation's suffering in the hands of a dictator's brutal and unforgiving regime. It was this act of despair, goes the narrative, which triggered the uprising in Tunisia and heralded the seismic regional shift that has become known as the Arab Spring.  Read more.