Egypt
After 18 days of mass demonstration, Hosni Mubarak resigned from his 30 years of presidency in February, 2011. Mohamed Morsi became the president with political group Muslim Brotherhood's support but was deposed after the coup d'etat by military in 2013. The leader of the coup- El-Sisi seized power next year and has been in power eversince. However, all these changes barely brought positive changes in the country. Political oppression, economic instability indicate that the situation's turned from bad to worse.
Yemen
After watching the success of taking down dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, Yemenis decided to walk on the same path to oust their president Ali Abdullah Saleh who had been excercising power for almost three decades. But Yemen's case was different. President Saleh was having dispute with the army Chief Ali Mohsen Al-ahmar and the country was already in a state of civil war. Amidst this, the Shia minority group 'Houthi' demanded Saleh to step down. Shia majority country Iran supported them as establishing influence on Yemen would help against enemy Saudi Arabia. Being alarmed by this, Saudi Arabia started helping Yemen government. After a course of events, Saudi Arabia made Saleh step down, made vice president Mansour Hadi the president of Yemen. Even so when the Houthis kept gaining control in 2014-2015, Saudi Arabia formed coalition with 8 other Arab countries to attack Houthis and keep Iran from founding further influence. Thus the civil war turned into a proxi war between Iran and Saudi Arabia and it's going on even to this day causing the civilian Yemenis to go through the worst humanitarian crisis of 21st century. Saudi coalition receives arms and logistics from countries like U.S.A., U.K. and France which makes these countries no less responsible for the loss of innocent lives.
Libya
To understand why what happened in Libya, it's important to take a look into the worth-knowing political biography of Muammar Gaddafi who ruled Libya for 42 years. At a young age he was inspired to share the dream of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to unify the Arab and make it a third-world free from western chain. He worked through his plan when he took over the country in a bloodless coup as the general of army and ended the reign of infamous King Idris in 1969. When the unification of the Arab world aka 'Pan-Arabism' didn't work, Gaddafi looked forward to 'Pan-Africanism' (unifying the Africa, having same currency, one central bank etc.). Had he succeeded with his plans, the Western world could have a rival and so Gaddafi had enemies there. During his reign, Libya became economically stable and the living standard of people was good. However, he had always used a good amount of force against whoever dared to have a different opinion. At the spark of Arab Spring, anti-Gaddafi forces rised together to bring him down. This time too Gaddafi could have been able to suppress the dissent unless the U.S. took side of the rebels. With the U.S. military backup, the rebels soon took controls and on 20 October, 2011, Gaddafi was brutally killed. After Gaddafi's death, things took an ugly turn as rival powers started fighting for control in a brutal civil war. Whether bringing down Gaddafi was good or not is an arguable topic but the sure thing is- foreign intervention was not for the sake of Libyans but for their own interest and Libyans have a long way to go to get their desired freedom.
Syria
Once the front-page news, now gone into oblivion among numerous events' queues but still ongoing Syrian Civil War's initiation was from Arab Spring. The Syrian stood up against the oppressive Assad-regime that started with Hafez al-Assad in 1971 and continued with his son Bashar al-Assad from 2000. The protest started from March, 2011 and soon turned into a civil war. After various foreign powers involved themselves with this, the warzone just turned into a mess where different forces started fighting against one another for different motives. The civil war escalated to regional and international conflict. Countries like Russia, Iran stood by Assad while other countries like U.S.A., U.K., France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar supported the rebel groups. Around 2013, Islamist militants like al-Nusrah, ISIS started to appear as a strong force. (These radical groups also fought against each other). All the destructions and heartbreaking consequences that ruined Syria and Syrians' lives amidst this seemingly neverending war are known to all.
So these are the major incidents brought by the Arab Spring. The ripple effect of a man setting himself on fire was so huge that even after a decade, its consequences are visible.
With the hope that all war-torn and oppressed people around the world will finally find the peace they deserve, I'm drawing an end to today's post. May Allah keep all of us safe. 🌻