Abstract: On 14 January 2011, the people of Tunisia rose up against tyranny and chanted slogans of “freedom”, “equality”, and “justice”, terms that are mentioned in the Declaration of Human and Civic Rights that was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of 1789. Poverty, cruelty and injustice are the recurrent themes that have consistently produced similar outcomes; the rebels of earlier times embodied the universal values of the French Revolution in their discourse. Nevertheless, the Tunisian people drew from their history and culture to forge their own claims while referring to the founding fathers – thinkers and politicians – of modern Tunisia.
