The Arab Spring began in late 2010 and early 2011, sparked by protests in Tunisia that overthrew the government there. The movement then spread to other countries in the region with large protests demanding democratic reforms and the overthrow of authoritarian rulers. Social media played a key role in organizing and spreading awareness of the protests. The outcomes varied by country, with mostly peaceful transitions in Tunisia and Egypt but civil wars erupting in Libya and Syria, and ongoing instability in Yemen and other nations. While the Arab Spring sparked hope, successful democratic transitions have so far been limited.

1. “ The Arab Spring”
Revolutions
Group Members
Zauq Akhtar 24201
AbdulMalik 21549
AimenShoaib 23600

2. • The Arab Spring is known by many names here are some of them:
 - The Arab Spring and Winter
- Arab Awakening
-Arab Uprising
• The Arab Spring (or the Arab Revolutions) refers to the recent revolutionary wave of
demonstrations and protests occurring in the Arab world.
• It was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings and armed rebellions that spread
across the Middle East in early 2011.
• Protest Started When Bouazizi The Fruit Seller in Tunisia after publically humiliated by
Police marched in front of a government building and set himself on fire.
• Ideas and Movements behind the Arab Spring. A major goal of the protesters
everywhere from Tunisia to Bahrain and Syria was to create more participatory and
representative political systems, a fairer economic system, and independent .
• The Arab Spring has brought down regimes in some Arab countries
Introduction

3. THE BEGINING OF REVOLUTION
Mohamed Bouazizi26 year old Tunisian

4. Arab Spring

5. Arab Spring

6. What is Arab Spring?
What is Arab Spring?
Here are the faces of men that did not care about their people.
Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
(Tunisia)
Hosni Mubarak
(Egypt)
Muammar Gaddafi
(Libya)
Bashar Al-Assad
(Syria)
Ali Saleh
(Yemen)

7.  Poverty
 Corruption
 Unemployment
 Censorship
 State Sponsored Violence against Civilians
 Economic turmoil
 Human rights violations Democratic deficit:
dictatorship & authoritarian regimes
Unrest Was About

8.  Causes include human rights violations, economic decline, as well
as extreme poverty caused by unemployment; a new generation
of majority and educated youth with the drive and determination
to force a change
 Globalization brings Western Culture to oppressed Middle Eastern
countries
 Women are becoming educated and fighting for equality for the
first time ever in some countries.
 Huge concentrations of wealth are in the hands of a select few.
 Social media takes the movements worldwide.
 Amnesty International pointed to Wikileaks’ as a catalyst for the
revolts by exposing government corruption to the people.
Causes

9. Tunisia

10. TUNISIA – THE START OF THE
UPRISING...

11.  Tunisia is the birthplace of the Arab Spring.
 The self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi sparked countrywide protests in
December 2010
 The main target was the corruption and repressive policies of President Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali.
 He was forced to flee the country on January 14 2011 after the armed forces
refused to crack down on the protests.
 Following Ben Ali’s downfall, Tunisia entered a protracted period of political
transition.
 Parliamentary elections in October 2011 were won by Islamists
Tunisia

12. Egypt

13. TAHRIR Square

14. EGYPT
• The Arab Spring began in Tunisia, but the decisive
moment that changed the region forever was the
downfall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
• The West’s key Arab ally, in power since 1980.
• Mass protests started on January 25 2011 and
Mubarak was forced to resign on February 11.
• Army refused to Intervene against the masses
occupying the Tahrir Square Cairo.
• Tens of thousands protests in streets for 18 days
846 people killed, 6000 injured.
• Protesting police brutality, limits on freedom of
speech, lack of free elections, govt corruption,
food prices, high unemployment, low min. wage.

15. LIBYA

16. Benghazi the 1.5 million Anti-Qadafi
protest

17. LIBYA
 By the time the Egyptian leader resigned, large parts
of the Middle East were already in turmoil.
 Started out as peaceful protests in Benghazi on Feb.
15th, 2011 More
protests and demonstrations followed
 The protests against Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi’s
regime in Libya started on February 15 2011, escalating
into the first civil war caused by the Arab Spring.
 March 2011 the NATO forces intervened against the
Qaddafi's army, helping the opposition rebel
movement to capture most of the country by August
2011. Qaddafi was killed on October 20.
 Most of the oil production has returned on stream,
but political
 violence remains endemic, and religious extremism
has been on the rise.

18. SYRIA

19. Protest Against Bashar al Asad

20. SYRIA
 Ben Ali and Mubarak were down, but
everyone was holding their breath for
Syria: a multi-religious country allied to
Iran ruled by a repressive republican
regime and a pivotal geo-political
position.
 First major protests began in March 2011
in provincial towns, gradually spreading
to all major urban areas.
 By the end of 2011, Syria slid into an
intractable civil war, with most of the
Alawite religious minority siding with
President Bashar al-Assad, and most of
the Sunni majority supporting the rebels
 Nearly 4,000 civilians killed thus far…

21. SYRIA
 Massive repression and death in the
thousands as Bashir Al-Assad attempts to hold
onto power.
 Cities of Homs, Damascus, and Hama saw the
most intense fighting and deaths in the early
days. The Syrian opposition received
recognition by many in the world in 2013.
 Russia supports the regime, while Saudi Arabia
supports the rebels –
 with neither side able to break the deadlock.

22. YEMEN

23. YEMEN
 Yemeni leader Ali Abdullah Saleh was the fourth
victim of the Arab Spring.
 Emboldened by events in Tunisia, anti-
government protesters of all political colors
started pouring onto the streets in mid
January 2011.
 Hundreds of people died in clashes as pro-
government forces organized rival rallies,and
the army began to disintegrate into two
political camps.
 Meanwhile, Al Qaeda in Yemen began to seize
territory in the south of the country.
 A political settlement facilitated by Saudi
Arabia saved Yemen from an all-out civil war.
 President Saleh signed the transition deal on
23 November 2011, agreeing to step aside
for a transitional government led by Vice-
President Abd al-Rab Mansur al-Hadi

24. THE ARAB SPRING AND SOCIAL MEDIA

25. Social Media: Enemy of the State or Power to the
People?

26. Social Media & Arab Spring

27. Social Media & Arab Spring
 The first mass protest in Egypt was announced on Facebook by
an anonymous group of activists, who in a few days managed to
attract tens of thousands of people. The social media proved a
powerful mobilization that helped the activists to outwit the
police.
 Al-Najma Zidjaly, a professor of Oman thinks that a large
contribution is made by the new “Internet-savvy youth” young
people that want to see a change in their countries in the forms
of more opportunities for education as well as a change in the
overall state of conditions. He refers to this as youth quake tool.
 Overall the use of the social media helped aid in the spread of
the news of the protests as well as ways to inspire others from
all over the world to join in virtually through the media if they
were unable to in real life

28.  Sites like Twitter and Facebook helped support and organize these protests.
 The younger generation are more internet literate and for that alone, they
have the upper hand.
 The Tunisian government has done whatever they could to block these sites
to the public
 The use of social media in Egypt, greatly aided in the acceleration of the
protests before they were blocked
 a New York-based Egyptian blogger interviewed by CNN, suggested as
much. She “appealed to the media to not fall for what she described as a
Mubarak regime plot to make the protests in Egypt seem like dangerous
anarchy.”
 The narrative was reset. Soon thereafter, CNN changed its on-screen
headlines from “CHAOS IN EGYPT” to “UPRISING IN EGYPT
 Syrian government has been doing what they could to crack down on the
use of social media.
 Supporters of President Bashar al-Assad, calling themselves the Syrian
Electronic Army
Social Media and Arab Spring

29.  Majority of states in the region represents little or no change. From
Saudi Arabia to Jordan, the ruling elites have managed through
adjustments to their ruling strategies to stay in power and face down
the protestors.
 The second category of outcomes indicates a more evenly balanced
contest between those mobilizing for change and the regime (or
remnants of the regime) themselves. For example, Libya, the 1st
country to enter civil war, followed by Syria are in this category.
(Yemen is very likely to go into civil war as well
 Finally, there are those countries which are in the midst of a largely
peaceful transition after regime change, Egypt and Tunisia.
 For all the troubles and uncertainties surrounding politics in Tunis and
Cairo, when compared to the violence and instability in Syria and
Libya and the ongoing post-Spring authoritarian upgrading across the
rest of the region, Egypt and Tunisia continue to offer hope for the
populations of the Arab world
Main Outcomes of Arab Spring

30.  The events of the Arab Spring have given hope to millions of
people across the Middle East and beyond that meaningful
political change for the better is a distinct possibility. That said,
of all the Arab countries effected by this wave of political
protest, only two, Egypt and Tunisia, is now in what looks like
political transitions to a more representative form of
government. Two more, Syria and Libya, were driven into civil
war with Yemen also showing some signs of following them.
The rest of the countries of the Middle East retain the ruling
elites they had before the Arab Spring started. Successful
revolutions are very rare indeed.
Conclusion

31. Any Question

32.  "Carlos Latuff’s Talk at 1º Encontro Mundial De Blogueiros (Brazil)." Jillian C. York. N.p., 29
 Oct. 2011. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.
 http://jilliancyork.com/2011/10/29/carlos-latuffs-talk-at-1%C2%BA-encontromundialde-blogueiros-
brazil/
 Ghonim, Wael. "A Government That Is Scared from #Facebook and #Twitter Should Govern a
 City in Farmville but Not a Country like #Egypt #Jan25." Twitter. Twitter, 26 Jan.
 2011. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.
 https://twitter.com/ghonim/status/30256052310114304
 Hetzegegenislam. "Tunisia Police Agains Rights and Humanity Tunis Sidi Bouzid." YouTube.
 YouTube, 28 Dec. 2010. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcvuvWtj4lM
 "Jadaliyya Ezine." Jadaliyya Ezine. N.p., 9 May 2014. Web. 06 Dec. 2016.
 http://reflate1.rssing.com/chan-3131967/all_p173.html
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring
References