The Negative Impact Arab Spring Brought to The Middle East

It is now almost half a decade since Tarek al-Tayeb Mohammed Bouazizi, a petty street fruit vendor, set himself on fire after being humiliated by local police. That one single act by the vendor opened up doors to what would become one of the most memorable uprisings in the Arab world. This uprisings famously known as the Arab spring, a phrase coined by an American academic, and the effects that it had on Tunisia are the basis of this paper. This uprisings have cost hundreds of thousands of Arab lives whilst the success of this political upheaval is highly debatable. This paper is aimed at answering the question, “What are the negative outcomes that have been experienced in Tunisia as a result of the Arab Spring?”.

The main aim of this revolutions at its core was an articulation of deep seated indignation and discontent at the aging Arab dictatorship, vexation at the savagery that was employed by various security structures, high rate of unemployment, corruption and a rising cost of living as well as an uprising against the privatization of select state assets in some countries. There has been a lot of debate that has been passed between factions about whether the Arab spring was successful in accomplishing its core aims however little is documented about the negative effects that the Arab spring has had on Tunisia and the many other countries that it affected.

A Case Study on Tunisia

The results that the Arab spring have caused can be felt like ripple effect in today’s Tunisia. Some of the ripple effects include the ousting of of the president of Tunisia Ben Ali who was forced out of his office because of the increased protests by the citizens. This paper will also focus on the effects that the Arab spring had on the constitution of Tunisia. It is is clearly evident that the Arab springs were the forefront in the drafting process of the Tunisian constitution. The new constitution was aimed at focusing on the women rights and in that respect the rights were supposed to be uplifted and reduce the oppression that women in Tunisia previously experienced.

This paper will also focus on the effects that the Arab spring had on the terror status in Tunisia. I will look at the status of terrorism in Tunisia before the Arab Spring started and the status of the Arab spring as it is today. My main focus will be the uprising of the terror group in Tunisia that is infamously known as Ansar al-Sharia together with its ties to the terror group Al-Qaeda.

I will also look at the budget of Tunisia and shed light as to how the Arab spring has affected it. The Arab springs are responsible for the recent cut of food subsidies and the taxes enforced on the citizens of Tunisia getting a significant raise. I will also focus on the loan that The International Monetary Fund gave to Tunisia and how that was affected by the Arab spring. It is evident that most of the effects that have been felt in Tunisia have also been felt in other countries and i will also look at the intensity in all the countries that were affected by the Arab spring and compare them all in an effort to determine which country experienced the worst effects of the Arab spring.