Nahla daoud biography of george

 Perspectives - Political Analysis and Commentary from the Middle East is a publication series of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung’s offices in Beirut and Ramallah provides a platform for analysis and viewpoints of experts from the region

The self-immolation of young and jobless Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid, being deprived of his vegetable stand and humiliated by the authorities, triggered popular movements and historic events in the Arab World completely unexpected in their magnitude…

… but were they really that unexpected?

Have not generations of activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens for decades tirelessly pointed to the repressive practices of their governments? Was it not common knowledge that thousands were executed, imprisoned, exiled, and dissent silenced in many other ways; was not testimony after testimony collected, and report aft