In 2011 the two of us were in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where Nouh addressed a huge crowd with an enthusiastic call for a dawla madanīya, a civil state, the alternative to both theocracy and military rule. For the past ten years we’ve worked together across the region to promote toleration, de-monopolization and economic openness, and constitutional democracy.
What has happened since that time?
Since 2010, Sixteen million have been forcibly displaced. Economic growth has fallen by half and unemployment is endemic, especially among the youth, who make up 85% of the unemployed. Oppressive states continue to dominate the Arab world. Cronyism, corruption, and state domination are still the order of the day.
Those problems have been compounded by the COVID-19 crisis, the collapse of tourism, disasters such as the Beirut port explosion, and the fall of oil prices. As everywhere, crises provide excuses for authoritarianism and the Arab world is no exception.
In contrast to the other MENA countries, the Tunisian trajectory is unique and keeping the Arab spring’s first and last hope alive. The country where the spark was first struck, Tunisia, after a brutal 23-year rule under the Ben Ali’s oppressive regime, has experienced honest elections. Eighty-six percent of Tunisians report that they have more freedom to criticize the government. According to Freedom House, Tunisia was ranked as “not free” in 2010, but has since been moved to “free,”
