The Arab spring at ten
A decade ago Arabs rose up. Why haven’t things improved?
IT IS AN anniversary no one is eager to mark. The numbers boggle the mind: half a million people dead; another 16m displaced from states no longer recognisable. There are the individual stories too, of dreams dashed and hopes shattered. One former activist, who long since gave up on the politics of his native Egypt, scrolls through the contacts on his phone, stopping now and then to list his friends’ fates: exiled, disappeared, dead.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “No cause for celebration”
From the December 16th 2020 edition
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