The Fires of Spring by Shelly Culbertson

I chose the six countries in this book to illustrate the region’s diversity and a variety of Arab Spring experiences. I hope to capture some of that spirit in this book. It was a privilege to have had the opportunity to talk with people who played such roles, took great personal risks, and exhibited courage and creativity.

To show multiple points of view, I spoke with people who vehemently disagreed with each other. I conducted interviews with key figures in the protests and revolutions, government officials, media leaders, and people who lived through important events of the Arab Spring. I visited historical sites and delved into scholarship on the region. This book is a narrative of that journey. And so I set out on a journey through six countries of the Middle East (not all of which are Arab countries) with varying roles in and experiences of the Arab Spring: Tunisia, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, Qatar, and Egypt. What are we to make of the disparate and tumultuous events in this part of the world? What was the Arab Spring about? What was accomplished? What trends are shaping the Middle East after the Arab Spring? But the aftermath has ranged from tentatively encouraging to halting processes for change to devastating civil wars that have resulted in challenges to the very borders of the Middle East and mass refugee crises. Arab Spring movements demanded a better way of life and new models for societies that were not realizing their potential. These events were optimistically termed the “Arab Spring.” The inspirational movements of the Arab Spring captured global imagination for what might be. A new generation revealed its frustration with the established order’s corruption, patronage, authoritarianism, and failed governance.

The peoples of the region wanted something more than to eke out an existence amid stagnation and repression. They saw themselves in him-lacking opportunities and doing their best to make do, subject to the petty whims of bureaucrats who could assault them and take away their livelihood with impunity.1 And then that rage spread elsewhere around the Middle East, with citizens both demonstrating peacefully and violently overthrowing governments. His story roused the sympathetic indignation of a generation of Tunisian youth. He poured paint thinner on his body and lit himself on fire.

In a small town in Tunisia, Mohammed Bouazizi, a young fruit seller, was angered and humiliated by a bureaucratic inspector who slapped his face and confiscated his apples.

The Fires of Spring by Shelly Culbertson