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Freedom Collection

Interviews with Zied Mhirsi

Interviewed October 3, 2024

The question of is it homegrown, or spontaneous or basically imported from other models is something that a lot of people would ask in Tunisia, especially those who were not monitoring the situation. My reading of the situation is that it was definitely homegrown but not only in the 28 days of the revolution. That was the last episode. I think that it´s something that shows that these people in Tunisia, basically the people of Tunisia know what´s best for them. If you look at the history of the country it´s definitely a stable, nice, secure and very Mediterranean country, but also used to very abrupt changes.

If you think we were Carthaginians [Carthage was an ancient civilization located in what is now Tunisia from 650 BC to 146 BC, when it was conquered by the Roman Empire. Carthage controlled much of the Mediterranean.] and all of a sudden we became Romans. And the Romans thrived in Tunisia and became part of the empire. And then we became Christians. And then we became Christian and we gave two popes and translated the Bible into Latin.

This is where it happens in Carthage, and gave St. Augustine to the world and influenced a lot the Christian world and the Western world. All of a sudden then the Muslims came. But with the same people became Muslims. And a lot of Islamic civilization also changed the course of history. And at some point also we became colonized by the Turks. And Turks were the rulers. And then we became French. And then we became independent. And one ruler ruled the country from ´56 to ´87, [Habib] Bourguiba [founder and first president of the Republic of Tunisia]. And then in one day [Former Tunisian President Zine el Abidine] Ben Ali took power. And people were okay with that.

So it´s long episodes of very stable and organized way of life. And then abrupt changes that happen really fast. Ben Ali´s rule was on the decline. We could see it. We could sense it. And it happened at some point that we got the last drop of patience was gone. And everyone decided in the same time that it was time to change. So I don´t think it was important. I don´t think it was organized. And that´s why it succeeded. Because as I said, Ben Ali´s regime was really well managed.

The dictatorship was very well managed. The system was functioning. And only something like this that was empowered definitely by social media allowed every single Tunisian to change his mind in the same time. And that´s what happened. And say, “It´s enough.” I think that´s what everybody said at some point. Because everyone would not agree with certain points but wouldn´t trade everything they had and pay a high price. But I think at some point there was no way we could continue under that system and ruled by someone who basically was not worth it, I think.