Tunisia: The Day Ben Ali Became President · Global Voices
Afef Abrougui

This post is part of our special coverage Tunisia Revolution 2011.
On November 7, 1987, former Tunisian President Zine Al Abidine Ben Ali, who now lives in exile in Saudi Arabia, came to power through a bloodless coup. Ben Ali became president, after doctors of his predecessor Habib Bourguiba filed a medical report claiming that the latter was medically incapable of fulfilling his duties as president.
Since the peaceful transfer of power took place, Ben Ali acted as the Tunisian President until he was forced to leave office on January 14, following a popular uprising that swept the North African country.
An example of how the streets of Tunis were decorated on November 7, 2009. The banner reads: Ben Ali Our Only Choice. Photo by Hamideddine Bouali
If Ben Ali was still in power, he would have been celebrating the 24th anniversary of his presidency. His pictures, and the purple color of his party [the Constitutional Democratic Rally, known by its French acronym, the RCD], would have been decorating the streets of Tunisia, from North to South.
Netizens react to the anniversary with relief.
Houssem H. tweets [fr]:
Demain ta ville ne sera pas repeinte en mauve #7nov
For this occasion, Tunisian blogger Imen Braham created a Tumblr blog and named it November 7th Without of Ben Ali. The blog is dedicated to share and mock previous speeches of the former President, and songs praising him.
She tweets [fr]:
Je viens de céer le Tumblr du #7nov sans Ben Ali pour nous rappeler ce qu'on va rater cette année :D
She adds in another tweet:
If you find stuff about previous #7nov in tunisia you can share with us :) http://7nov.tumblr.com/ Tunisia isn't missing it's dictator
For instance, Imen shared a televised speech by Ben Ali, in which he was addressing the youth on the occasion of the International Year for Youth. She commented [ar]:
كلمة بن علي بمناسبة السنة الدولية للشباب!  قال نريد الشباب أن يجلب إلى تونس الشرف ! الشباب طردك وجابلنا الشرف
Another tumblr blog called Le musée mauve (The Purple Museum) [fr] was created, for the same purpose.
Oussama Messaoud, wrote an imaginary speech [ar], of what would Ben Ali have said, had he still been in power. About his text, Oussama writes:
In this imaginary speech, Ben Ali says:
He adds:
This November 7 overlapped with the second day of Eid Al Adha celebrations. On Twitter, Protact makes the connection:
@protact: tunisian are celebrating the second day of #Aid and the first #7Nov day without the ousted president speech.
And Mira adds [fr]:
@Mira404: Cette année en égorgeant leurs moutons bcp de tunisiens vont penser à Ben Ali.
This post is part of our special coverage Tunisia Revolution 2011.