Mohamed Bouazizi

Mohamed Bouazizi (born March 29, 1984, Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia—died January 4, 2011, Ben Arous, Tunisia) was a Tunisian street vendor whose self-immolation after being harassed by municipal officials catalyzed the Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia and helped inspire a wider pro-democracy protest movement in the Middle East and North Africa known as the Arab Spring. Bouazizi’s early life in Sidi Salah, a small village near the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, was defined by economic...