People’s movements symbolise people’s power

By Asad Mirza Arab Spring and Shaheen Bagh sit-out emerge as two examples of popular and strong people movements in the recent history.
The past week marked the tenth and first anniversary of two different events, both starting off as a protest against the ruling regime and in turn snowballing into massive movements.
The first, the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ marked its tenth anniversary and the second, the Shaheen Bagh sit-out its first anniversary. Let’s have a look how these two movements started and what did they achieve.
Arab Spring Ten years back when a young street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid set himself on fire on 17 December 2010, he started a revolution, which spread across his own country and later to most of the Middle Eastern countries.
Due to the protests Tunisia has transformed in many ways, it has held numerous elections. Form of government to strengthen the parliament has been affected; a new constitution that enshrines civil liberties and women’s rights while limiting the power of the armed forces has been adopted.
The protestors had hoped for change, dawn of a new era of prosperity and freedom. But ten years later, that spectacular moment of joy and liberation has faded away to reveal a sober reality. A small country struggles to find its way despite economic stagnancy, persistent corruption and stark political and cultural polarisation.