Tunisia Opinion: "An Inspiring Revolt" (Malik)

There are few moments in the political atmosphere of the Middle East that fill me with genuine pride. While eyes have long been fixed on opposition movements in Iran and Egypt, suddenly Tunisia has provided one of the most inspiring episodes of indigenous revolt against a repressive regime.

Despite distressing reports of security forces shooting demonstrators dead, the events are heartening, not necessarily as a harbinger of transformation in the region, but as an indication that it is possible. Change is sometimes more likely to happen when people know what it looks like, when the first person dares to points to the emperor and say that he is naked.

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Tunisia Analysis: The Rise of an Economic and Political Crisis (Sadiki)

Photo: Agence France PresseLike many developing states, Tunisia jumped onto the "Washington consensus" bandwagon, which led to fiscal, political and social adjustments.

This led to a decrease in subsidies, privatisation, poor convertibility of the dinar, vast land sales with foreign ownership of real estate, tourist resort leasing, nouveaux riches consumption patterns, big business commissions, business monopolies and corruption.

Inevitably, the clouds gathering over the skies of Tunisia’s winter of discontent have started  the tell-tale signs of a deluge of ills symptomatic of a quasi-"banana republic".

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Tunisia: Escalating Protests over Unemployment (Al Jazeera)

Demonstrators in Tunisia are continuing their street protests, ignoring a warning by Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, the Tunisian president, that disturbances will be firmly dealt with.

Protests continued unabated on Wednesday with demonstrators deploring the lack of employment opportunities in the country.

Lawyers have joined students and youths on the streets of the capital and trade unions are reportedly lending their support to the movement.

Ben Ali, who named a new youth minister on Wednesday in a limited cabinet reshuffle, warned earlier that protesters would be punished if rioting continued in the country.

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Europe and the Middle East: Reading the Questions over the Veil (Iskander)

A week after France’s Senate voted in favour of a ban on face coverings in public, diverse reactions across the Middle East underline that this region cannot be viewed as a monolithic bloc.  It was expected that the forbidding of the niqab and burka would elicit angry reactions: there has been some anger, but reactions have not been uniform nor entirely negative. 

There is no single view on the veil that dominates in the Middle East, with many countries debating the place of the niqab even more urgently than their European counterparts.

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