Tunisia's baguette-wielding activist gives bread riots modern meaning - Tunis, Tunisia
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Becktracker
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An activist from the 2011 Arab Spring had a funny way of making his point on the Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis
Waymark Code: WM1503M
Location: Tunisia
Date Posted: 09/20/2021
Views: 2
from dailystar.com:
"Tunisia’s dictator fell to an uprising touched off by a tragic young fruit vendor, but post-revolution leaders are kept in check by a comics superhero armed with a French baguette.
This unlikely champion has picked up the legacy of Mohammad Bouazizi, 26, who set himself on fire in December to protest police harassment and in doing so triggered a wave of discontent still sweeping the Arab world.
Captain Khobza (bread) wears a red Superman cape, a mask and the traditional chechia hat. He has a cigarette dangling from his lips and carries a French baguette everywhere he goes.
“It’s an image of a Tunisian who is not afraid,” said one of his creators.
The clips, posted on Facebook, are produced several times a week and the page has already attracted close to 200,000 “friends.”
His character was inspired by a picture shot on Jan. 18 2011 by an AFP photographer, at the height of the protests. It showed a lone man defying anti-riot police on a Tunis street with a baguette held like a machine gun.
The picture was shot on Habib Bourguiba avenue, a central thoroughfare named after the former president whose regime was nearly felled in 1984 by so-called “bread riots” over the rising cost of basic food goods.
The subsequent repression was led by Ben Ali, and began his rise to power. The 2011 protests brought the spark in the so-called Arab Spring and Ben Ali had to abdicate because of the protests.
The unnamed baguette-toting protester caught on film in January embodied an uprising that many saw as finally picking up where the 1984 riots left off."
Type of publication: Newspaper
When was the article reported?: 07/19/2011
Publication: Daily star
Article Url: [Web Link]
Is Registration Required?: no
How widespread was the article reported?: international
News Category: Politics
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