VIVA LA REVOLUTION!

What a year 2011 has been already!

In the past 15 days, the world has exploded. Violence everywhere- from Alexandria to Tuscon to Prince George's County, Maryland where in the first 11 days of 2011, there were 11 homicides. In Pakistan, a man killed because he wanted to revoke the blasphemy law which assigns capital punishment to those who speak against religion. Hizbollah withdrew from the Lebanese Unity government causing its collapse. Has the world gone crazy or is it just me?

Despite the violence, in the first 15 days of 2011, the world has also witnessed the unimaginable: the capacity for change.

In the past week, in places that have never before seen freedom, the masses have assembled and made their voices heard. In Southern Sudan, the people exercised their right to vote and are now in the process of seceding from the north and gaining independence. To ensure that all the ballots would be accessible to even the illiterate, the referendum commission designed logos- hands locked in a handshake symbolizing a vote for unity, and a hand waving goodbye to the north to represent a vote for secession. Now after 2 bloody civil wars, the South has become its own country and hopefully will no longer be subject to religious and political oppression.

And yesterday, the world truly witnessed history: The Jasmine Revolution. After 23 years of a long, brutal dictatorship in one of the most tightly run police states in the Arab world, Tunisian citizens took to the streets. Protesting years of abuse, unemployment, and corruption, the Tunisian people endured 29 days of police brutality and imposed curfews that left 70 people dead. But their efforts paid off. Yesterday, Tunisian president, Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, fled the country and officially announced the end of his reign, becoming the first Arab dictator to step down due to popular protest.

The people have spoken! As one young Egyptian woman tweeted, "The power of the masses is capable of toppling any dictatorship. Today was Tunisia. Tomorrow is Egypt, Jordan. LONG LIVE REVOLUTION!" Arab leaders watch in fear as Tunisia hopefully begins to set a precedent for the Arab world. Revolution is possible! Your voice can be heard! Change is possible!

Even more astonishing, this was an entirely secular revolution, with little to no participation by known Islamic groups. Although there are many reasons for this, it is clear that Tunisia will not become an Islamic state but rather maintain its secular identity.

This has been one of the most historic days for the Arab world. Whether the fever of revolution will spread to other autocracies around the region remains to be seen; whether countries like Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, and Yemen will follow suit is still up for debate. But for now, I extend my sincerest congratulations to the people of Tunisia for doing what I would hope that I would have the courage to do, for giving hope to oppressed peoples in the rest of the world that change is possible, even in the most bitter of circumstances, and for motivating others to stand up for their rights. I hope that the coming months bring them the freedom that they deserve.

For more on the Tunisian Revolution, I recommend reading:
Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution by Mona Eltahwy
Foreign Policy's January 15th issue: The Last King of Tunisia: The Strange Rise and Fall of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali including articles by Nathan Brown, "Ben Ali is gone but his constitution is not yet forgotten," and Christopher Alexander, "Anatomy of an autocracy."