Tunisia's burning issues

Driving on the highway towards the city of Mahdia, just a couple of hours away from Tunis, our car was blocked by the police as a man from Lamta, in the Monastir municipality, set himself on fire on the 20th of August. Following the beginning of the ‘Jasmine Revolution’ there have been around 180 cases of self-immolations in Tunisia. According to Michael Biggs, sociologist at the University of Oxford, before 2010, suicide protest was almost entirely absent from Muslim countries, aside from Turkey. That changed, however, with the death of 26 years old street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, in Tunisia.

Bouazizi probably never imagined that by setting himself alight he would create the domino effect that escalated into the ‘Arab Spring’. His act inspired subsequent self-immolations in Algeria, Egypt, and Morocco and it seems that this form of deadly protest has made a resurgence in the region. Across Tunisia, somehow inspired by Bouazizi’s ultimate symbol of protest, there are still cases of people pouring petrol over themselves — often to protest at their inability to make a living. 

At the Ben Arous burn centre, self-immolations make up a high percentage of admissions. “The less the media talk about this problem, the better. We have noticed a wave of self-immolation cases following media coverage of the issue. To preserve patients it is better not to circulate such news,” Dr. Amen Allah Messaadi, the centre’s trauma chief told MO*. 

According to Mohamed from the city of Hammamet, Tunisians commit this symbolic form of suicide as they feel that the country “offers no hope”, but “the government doesn’t react to self-immolations anymore”. “Bouazizi set himself on fire more than two years ago and it sparked the revolution, but now pouring petrol over oneself’s won’t make any difference,” Mohamed told MO*.

Post-revolution

Two years after the revolution and the ouster of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia is still facing intense socioeconomic difficulties.  The deepening political crisis , high unemployment rate and inequalities between regions, are all making the lives of Tunisians harder. The death of Adel Khadri, a 27-year-old cigarette street vendor who set himself alight in Tunis on March 12, 2013, was a call for the entire Tunisian society. Witnesses said Khedhri shouted: “This is a young man who sells cigarettes because of unemployment,” before flames consumed his entire body. 

For millions of jobless, hopeless 20-somethings across North Africa, self-immolation has become a powerful form of individual protest. In some cases, the cause is expressed in slogans shouted within seconds of the fatal act. As’ad AbuKhalil, blogger for the site The Angry Arab News Service, believes that self-immolations represent the urgency to “express oneself in an act that draws attention and sympathy and shows the outrage experienced by the oppressed Arab population.”