On 17th of December 2010,a poor grocer, Mohamed Bouaziizi, set himself on fire in Tunisia

after being manhandled by police. He was protesting against the economic woes,

unemployment and corruptionprevalent in the Bin Ali’s regime. This self-immolation of the poor

grocer caused a contagious upheaval in the country that spread to the other Arab countries as

well: Libya, Egypt, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain, and smaller number of protests in the other

countries such as Morocco and Saudi Arabia were noticed. Were these protest just emotional

based on the self-immolation of Bouaziizi, or were there some substantial reasons behind these

protests? These protests in the Middle Eastern and North African countries were latera called

‘Arab Spring’ or Arab Awakening,’ and were caused by myriad of reasons. In this writing, we

will discuss some major reasons, which encompass all the minor reasons, responsible for the

uprisings in the above-mentioned countries. This paper argues that economics woes, social

problems and the aging-kleptocratic dictatorship resulted in what is called ‘The Arab

Awakening’.

Arab countries are theepicenter of Arab springs that have always been the center of attention

because of their geostrategic importance, as they are located in the middle of Europe, Asia and

Africa, and their richness in Natural resources, oil and gas. This strategic importance has always

tempted the great powers to take control of these countries, or at least to intervene in the affairs

of these countries. Historically, these Arab countries like Syria, Libya, Egypt, and so on, came

under the Ottoman rule in 16th century, and remained the part of the Caliphate till World War 1.

After the collapse of Ottoman Empire in WWI, France and England split up the region: France

took North African Arabian countries, while England took the rest of the region, including

Middle Eastern countries. With the decolonization, and in the wake of World War 2, these

countries got independent from their colonial masters, but their bad luck, most of them went
under the control of authoritative regimes. These authoritative regimes ruled by the iron fist, and

abused human rights and victimize people to fortify their sway over people. This repressive

attitude of the regimes incited public for civil unrest from time to time, and the Arab spring of

2011, was just following the suit.

“The economic production and the structure of society of every historical epoch resulting from it

constitute the political and intellectual history of that epoch,” Communist Manifesto. Economic

conditions have always been the key triggers behind every revolution or political change, be it

French revolution, dissolution of Soviet Union, or Arab revolution. It is argued that the Arab

economies had solid growth rates during the decade preceding the ‘Arab Awakening,’ and it is

true. However, the growth rates were not all-encompassing. The youth was left out, huge bulge

of population was unemployed, women were out of labor markets, middle class was squeezed,

living standard was very low, inflation rates were increasing, economic inequality was very high,

and there were limited economic opportunities. To illustrate, “twenty-four percent of young

people in the region cannot find jobs" (Guardian: 2011). This percentage is very high as

compared to the developed countries. Similarly,in Egypt nearly all of the women working in the

informal sector are in agriculture, working on the family farm with their husbands and children,

and usually are not paid. Many Egyptian women explained that if they could not get a formal

sector job, preferably in government, they prefer to “respect themselves” and stay at home

(World Bank, 2012). Furthermore, according to a survey by Arab Barometer in Tunisia, about 63

% of the respondents considered weak economy the main cause behind the revolts. Thus, these

economic conditions urged the youth-dominated protests to erupt in the Arab countries which

ultimately resulted in the overthrow of some long-standing dictators.

However, the crowd gathered at Tahrir Square, Egypt, chanting the words karama (dignity) and

hurriyya (freedom) were implying some other reasons besides failing economy behind the

revolution.Social causes/problems, strictly combine with the economic crisis, caused uprisings

that made a domino effect all over the Middle East and North Africa. Social causes of the Arab

spring includereligious and political oppression, lack of freedom of expression, curbing of

human rights, gender and ethnic discrimination, stifling of political dissent, and lack of

democratic structure that led the frustrated protestors to strive for the manifestation of Rosseau’s

dictum: Man is born free. The fundamental human rights like that of right to vote, liberty,

expression and association have beendiscouraged through restrictions of continuous emergencies

as Tunisia and othercountries declared (Muller &Hubner, 2014). Similarly, according to report

by Pew Research Center, “In 2011, when most of the political uprisings known as the Arab

Spring occurred, the Middle East and North Africa experienced pronounced increases in social

hostilities involving religion, while government restrictions on religion remained exceptionally

high.”

One of the most common factor behind the protests was fixed-keptocratic dictatorship: Bin Ali in

Tunisia since 1987, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt since 1980, Ghaddafi in Libya for 42 years, Al

Assad in Syria and Abdullah Saleh in Yemen. They were morally and ideologically corrupt, and

they were incompetent to face the challenges of 21st century. These regimes tried to consolidate

their power by abusing human rights, suppressing the political dissents, and punishing and jailing

political opponents, and they were excessive corrupt. As Gelvin (2012) writes: “In both Tunisia

and Egypt, tales of corruption took on almost mythic proportions. The inhabitants of both are

used to dealing with policeman and civil servants with their hands out (because salaries are low,

bribery is effectively written into the economic system). But during the uprisings, protesters
vented their rage on corruption at the top.” In short, the repressive authorities cut off their nose to

spite their face, and their own actions brought doomsday to their regimes.

To conclude, Arab springs were not caused by just one reason, but in fact there were myriad of

reasons behind the uprisings. The economic distress, political and religious oppressions, social

inequality, discrimination, and many other factors contribute in causing the revolts all over the

Arab countries. These revolts yielded some successful results: overthrow of Tunisian president

Bin Ali, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, and overthrow and killing of Libyan loony ruler

Ghaddafi. It is welcoming that the Arab people have shed the long-standing authoritative

regimes, and clearly demonstrated that they will revolt to protect their rights and claims.

However, there are many questions waiting to be answered.Have these revolutions been fruitful

for the people and their freedom, or they were just some political changes paving path for new

regimes? However, now, eveneight years after the revolution, analysts are still ambivalent about

the consequences of the Arab Awakening.