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Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

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In December 2010, the decision of a man called Mohamed Bouazizi to burn himself, led to the Revolution in Tunisia which triggered subsequent unrests and government overthrows in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen. Syria seems to follow next.

As the revolution unfolded, protesters were beginning to express their ideas through graffiti. And as Blake Gopnik says in an article that was published in Foreign Policy, the similarity between the Arab Spring’s graffiti and the graffiti of the 1980s in New York is stunning.  Graffiti, a Western form of the “art” of protest, is now a part of the Libyans’, Tunisians’ and Egyptians’ freedom of speech arsenal.

The images below are absolutely fantastic and I’ve selected at least 5 from each country (to be read-Egypt, Libya and Tunisia). Nevertheless, I recommend you to view them carefully and to eventually compare them to those that can be found in your home countries. Enjoy, be inspired and if you will like this article, then please share it with your friends or community! Many thanks! Cheers!

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Libya

Col. Muammar Gaddafi squeezed  by the Revolution
Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

REUTERS/Bob Strong

 

 

Col. Muammar Gaddafi and his son, hanged

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

Dad, tell the reptiles to crawl away”. Gaddafi: “Shut Up, you child!”

 

Gaddafi kicked by the Lybian people

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

Benghazi, east of Libya

 

 

Gaddafi portraited as a rat

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

 

Freedom Lybia

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

A peace sign in the colors of the rebel flag on Al Fatah Street near Mitiga International airport

 

 

Gaddafi thrown in the Garbage  of History

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

Tripoli, Libya

 

 

 

How the Lybians felt Gaddafi was sharing the revenues from oil..

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

 

Gaddafi  depicted as a chicken

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

Photographer: Theo Stamatiadis

 

 

 Moammar Gadhafi(right) and his public relations officer Y. Shakhir

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

Photograph: Rory Mulholland

 

 

Fashlun, a neighborhood in west Tripoli

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

Photographer: Theo Stamatiadis

 

 

Graffiti depicting Libya’s ousted Moammar Gaddafi with “I Am Here” (Tripoli)

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

 

Have the rebels come or not?” asks Gaddafi

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

 

“I’m here, here, here!”

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

as Gaddafi points at a rat hole, with a sign reading “The Invincible Home”

 

 

Free Libya

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

Photograph: Rory Mulholland

 

 

Anti-Gaddafi grafitti

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

Photograph: Rory Mulholland

 

Egypt

 

Freedom of expression

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

Photograph: Mohamed El Hebeishy

 

 

Alternative media and how it played a crucial role in bringing freedom

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

 

Chess Pawns overthrowing the king (a.k.a. Hosni Mubarak)

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

 

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

 

Ousted president Hosni Mubarak (R) joined to half the face of Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi (L)

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

 

Hosni Mubarak and his inner circle

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

Tunisia

 

 

Long live the people!

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

Tunisians after the ouster of President Ben-Ali

 

 

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

“The popular uprising that unseated the dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in January grew out of chronic youth  unemployment; social and economic disparities between the affluent coastal regions and the impoverished interior; and a lack of political freedom”

 

 

Democratic rule in Tunisia is to be achieved

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

 

The Constitutional Democratic Rally party (RCD) was swept from power on 14 January 2011, after 23 years of  repressive rule.

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

 

Mohammed Hanchi – the martyr who ignited the revolution

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

 

Free Syria ( Graffiti from London)

Graffiti & The Arab Spring: An Explosive Combination

 

Main sources for the images: The Guardian and Al-Jazeera.