How did the Arab uprising started? Who is Mohammed Bouazizi?

It seems that the otherwise peaceful Arab world had suddenly became the site for an unprecedented uprising in more than a hundred years. What started the uprising and how did it started? Well, the reason for all the uprising is cause by one person in a remote village by the name of Mohammed Bouazizi, a Tunisian fruit seller.

Bouazizi burned himself outside a government building in Tunisia and from thereon his story inspired people from his own country to start a evolution and then in Egypt. After a while almost every country in the Arab world is raising in protest, claiming their freedom and asking for more democracy against the Middle East and North African dictators and oligarchs.

More than three months ago, he was an unknown fruit vendor struggling to make ends meet for his family. He is earning about $10 a day. Then one day, on December 17, while operating his fruit card in downtown Sidi Bouazid, a female municipal inspector, Faida Hamdy seized Bouazizi's fruit-weighing scales and slapped him on the face.

After the incident he tried to get the attention of local officials but his efforts was ignored. Then, one day, he poured fuel all over his body and set himself in flames at the gates of the governorate building. Right after that incident protest broke up in Sidi Bouzid which spread across the country and led to the ouster of the Tunisian president. It was like wildfire that it also inspired other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.



Now, several blocks away from his tomb lays a huge portrait of the 26-year old fruit vendor and the area is being proposed to be named as "Martyr Mohammed Bouazizi Square."

This only proves the fact that everyone has a power to change the world. A fact that was highlighted in a very memorable movie called "Pay It Forward."

For a more detailed article on Mohammed Bouazizi CLICK THIS report from CNN.



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