01.29.2021

Reflections on the 10th Anniversary of the Arab Spring

This month marks the tenth anniversary of the height of the Arab Spring, a time of street protests and revolution stretching across the Middle East and North Africa. Young people rose up to depose dictators and finally claim their freedom – or so they hoped. What began in youthful fervor descended in many countries into crackdowns, civil war, and the establishment of even harsher dictatorships.

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AMNA GUELLALI, DEPUTY REGIONAL DIRECTOR FOR MIDDLE EAST, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: At the time when Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire and all the protests erupted throughout the country, we didn’t really think that, a month later, we — there would be the fall of the regime. We thought that there is a movement that is really incredibly powerful, but that it will run against also a very important repression. There were people who were killed. And nobody really expected that, on the 14th of January, Ben Ali would flee the country, after more than — after tens of years in power. And so this was really a moment of incredible strength, a moment of inspiration for all of the people who took to the streets, because they really saw that their demands and their desire to get rid of the dictatorship were successful, and that we had a new country to build. That was really what people felt at the time, that we need to build new foundations in Tunisia.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: Right. And, actually, Tunisia has emerged better than most. And we will get back to what’s happening there now. But, Ahdaf Soueif, it happened in Egypt about a month later about this time 10 years ago. And you were there. Tell me what has been the result. We asked, what has the region got to show for it? What has Egypt got to show for the Tahrir Square revolution?

AHDAF SOUEIF, EGYPTIAN NOVELIST AND ACTIVIST: Well, that’s something, of course, Christiane, that we discussed ad infinitum. We’re actually in a much worse place now than we were 10 years ago, in terms of the deterioration of the country, in terms of the hollowing out of institutions, the economy, and certainly human rights. However, it — a revolution provides a kind of benchmark, a kind of moment in history that we can refer to. And, also, it has created an amount of change in people’s — a huge amounts of change, I think, in people’s psyches, if you like. There’s a much higher level of political awareness now. And there’s kind of more interest in information.

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Marty Baron joins Christiane for his first television interview since announcing he will step down as The Washington Post’s executive editor. Ahdaf Soueif and Ahdaf Soueif reflect on the 10th anniversary of the Arab Spring. Former prisoner Chris Young and former judge Kevin Sharp discuss the criminal justice system.

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