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Heart and Soul: Green Shoots from the Arab Spring

A boy with a Tunisian flag

14/12/2012 GMT

Green Shoots from the Arab Spring

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Green Shoots from the Arab Spring

Will free thinking survive the realities of living in post-revolution Tunisia?

With the downfall of Hosni Mubarak, political revolution has already happened in Egypt. But is the Arab Spring now encouraging much wider change in the Arab world’s biggest country? 

Many argue that the historic heartlands of Islam are engaged in a chaotic experiment with modernity. Coverage of the Arab Uprisings of the past two years has focused on the political drama; less scrutinised have been the changes in society that are part and parcel of the great experiment.

In the second of two programmes the writer, Christopher de Bellaigue, travels to Tunisia – the first country to experience the Arab Spring two years ago, but whose people now often find themselves divided and disillusioned. Will the new mind-set of free thinking survive the harsh realities of post-revolution?

(Image: A boy holds a Tunisian flag, Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

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