Protests

1. Alice Herz

Though she is not as well known as the self-immolations of Norman Morrison and Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức in protest of the Vietnam war, Alice Herz does hold the distinction of being the first activist in the United States known to have immolated herself in protest of the escalating Vietnam War. Clearly she was following the example of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức who immolated himself in protest of the alleged oppression of Buddhists under the South Vietnamese government.

A German of Jewish ancestry, Herz was a widow who left Germany for France with her daughter, Helga, in 1933, saying that she anticipated the advent of Nazism long before it arrived. They were living in France when Germany invaded, in 1940. After spending time in an internment camp, Alice and Helga eventually came to the United States, in 1942. They settled in Detroit, where Helga became a librarian at the Detroit Public Library and worked as a longtime peace activist.

Herz self-immolated on March 16, 1965, in Detroit, Michigan, at the age of 82. A man and his two boys were driving by and saw her burning and put out the flames. She died of her injuries ten days later. Herz wrote a last testament, which she distributed to several friends and fellow activists before her death. The testament specifically refers to her decision to follow the protest methods of the Buddhist Vietnamese monks and nuns, whose acts of self-immolation had received worldwide attention. Confiding to a friend before her death, Herz remarked that she had used all of the accepted protest methods available to activists—including marching, protesting, and writing countless articles and letters—and she wondered what else she could do. After her death, Japanese author and philosopher Shingo Shibata established the Alice Herz Peace Fund. A plaza in Berlin (Alice Herz Platz) was named in her honor.

2. George Winne, Jr.

George Winne, Jr. may hold the distinction of being the last American to self-immolate in protest of the Vietnam war. Winne was born in Detroit, Michigan. His father was a captain in the U.S. Navy. Like Herz, he was inspired by the self-immolation of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức Winne set himself on fire in a deliberate act of self-immolation in Revelle Plaza, on the campus of the University of California, San Diego on May 10, 1970, to protest the United States involvement in the war. The 23 year old student, a former member of an ROTC unit at the Colorado School of Mines, had no previous affiliation with any organized protests. Winne had recently completed his studies towards a degree in History in March, and had joined the History department as a graduate student. He would have attended graduation in June.

Slightly after 4 p.m. on May 10, Winne ignited gasoline-soaked rags in his lap next to a sign that said “In God’s name, end this war.” He began to run and was knocked down by physics graduate student Keith Stowe, who tried to smother the flames. Winne died ten hours later at Scripps Hospital, after asking his mother to write a letter to President Nixon. His last words were “I believe in God and the hereafter and I will see you there.”

Throughout the 1980s, student groups asked that a plaque be placed in memory of Winne. Although the Associated Students approved the proposal, it was blocked by the Revelle College Council. The UCSD Disorientation Manual 2001-2002 (p.43) says that the bricks upon which he lit himself on fire were removed from their original location in Revelle Plaza and currently rest next to a small memorial plaque, located in a grove of trees east of the campus library.

3. Mohamed Bouazizi

Showing the lasting appeal of self-immolation as a political statement, the most recent and newsworthy example is that of the death of Tarek al-Tayyib Muhammad ibn Bouazizi, known simply as Mohamed Bouazizi.

Bouazizi was a Tunisian who had a hard life from the beginning, with his father dying when he was only 3. He was educated in a one-room country school in a small Tunisian village and he never graduated from high school, Bouazizi had worked various jobs since he was ten, and in his late teens he quit school in order to work full-time.

Bouazizi lived in a modest stucco home, a twenty-minute walk from the center of Sidi Bouzid, a rural town in Tunisia burdened by corruption and suffering an unemployment rate estimated at 30%., He applied to join the army, but was refused, and several subsequent job applications went nowhere. He supported his mother, uncle and younger siblings, including paying for one of his sisters to attend university, by earning approximately $140 per month selling his produce on the street in Sidi Bouzid.

Local police officers had harassed Bouazizi for years, regularly confiscating his small wheelbarrow of produce; but Bouazizi had few options to try to make a living, so he continued to work as a street vendor. On the morning of December 17, 2010, soon after setting up his cart, the police confiscated his wares again, ostensibly because Bouazizi did not have a vendor’s permit, although no permit is needed to sell from a cart.

It was also claimed that Bouazizi did not have the funds to bribe the police officials to allow his street vending to continue. Bouazizi was publicly humiliated when a 45-year-old female municipal official, slapped him in the face, spat at him, confiscated his electronic weighing scales, and tossed aside his fruit and vegetable cart; all while her two colleagues assisted her in beating him. It was also stated that she made a slur against his deceased father. Her gender made his humiliation worse due to expectations in the Arab world.

Angered by the confrontation, Bouazizi went to the governor’s office to complain. Following the governor’s refusal to see or listen to him, even after Bouazizi was quoted as saying “‘If you don’t see me, I’ll burn myself’,” he acquired a can of gasoline. He doused himself in front of a local government building and set himself alight. This act became the catalyst for the 2010–2011 Tunisian uprising, sparking deadly demonstrations and riots throughout Tunisia in protest of social and political issues in the country. Anger and violence intensified following Bouazizi’s death, leading then-President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down after 23 years in power.

Following Bouazizi’s self-immolation, several other men have emulated this act in other Arab republics, in an attempt to bring an end to the oppression they face from corrupt, autocratic governments. Although none have elicited significant results, they and Bouazizi are being hailed by some as “heroic martyrs of a new Middle Eastern revolution.” Inspired by Bouazizi’s act, and the success of the people overthrowing the oppressive leaders in Tunisia, oppressed people in many Middle Eastern countries have followed suit. The subsequent fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, and the looming overthrow of Muammar Qhadafi in Libya can be directly traced to this single act of self immolation.

4. Follow Up Acts – Early 2011

Inspired by the self immolation of Bouazizi, which led to the successful overthrow of the hated Ben Ali regime in Tunisia, several other acts of self immolation have occurred around the Middle East. Much like those who were inspired to protest the Vietnam war after the self-immolation of Buddhist monk Thích Quảng Đức, others have been inspired to protest repressive regimes in countries throughout the Middle East, and also in Europe.

In Algeria, during protests against rising food prices and spreading unemployment, there have been several cases of self immolation. The first reported case following Bouazizi’s death was Mohsen Bouterfif, a 37-year-old father of two, who set himself on fire when the mayor of Boukhadra refused to meet with him and others regarding employment and housing requests. According to a report in El-Watan, the mayor challenged him, saying if he had courage he would immolate himself by fire as Bouazizi had done. On January 13, 2011, Bouterfif did just that. He died on January 24, 2011.

Maamir Lotfi, a 36-year-old unemployed father of six who was denied a meeting with the governor, burned himself in front of the El Oued town hall on January 17, 2011. He died on February 12. Abdelhafid Boudechicha, a 29-year-old day laborer who lived with his parents and five siblings, burned himself in Medjana on January 28, 2011, over employment and housing issues. He died the following day. In Egypt, Abdou Abdel-Moneim Jaafar, a 49-year-old restaurant owner, set himself alight in front of the Egyptian Parliament. His act of protest contributed to the instigation of weeks of protest and, later, the resignation of Egyptian then-President Hosni Mubarak, on February 11, 2011. In Saudi Arabia, an unidentified 65-year-old man died on January 21, 2011, after setting himself on fire in the town of Samtah, Jizan. This was apparently the first known case of self-immolation in Saudi Arabia.

Not all of these cases of self immolation, with the exception of Egypt, provoked the same kind of popular reaction that Bouazizi’s case did in Tunisia. However, the mass popular uprising throughout the Middle East that has come about, subsequent to Bouazizi’s self immolation, has forced countries such as Algeria, Yemen and Jordan to make major concessions in response to significant protests. As such, these men and Bouazizi are being hailed by some as “heroic martyrs of a new Arab revolution.” The wave of copycat incidents reached Europe on February 11, 2011, in a case very similar to Bouazizi’s. Noureddine Adnane, a 27-year-old Moroccan street vendor, set himself on fire in Palermo, Sicily, in protest of the confiscation of his wares and the harassment that was allegedly inflicted on him by municipal officials. He died five days later.