Tunisia Head of state

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali

زين العابدين بن علي

Head of state Inactive Verified

President of Tunisia 1987-2011. Overthrown by the 2011 uprising that triggered the broader Arab Spring; fled to Saudi Arabia, died there in 2019.

Country: Tunisia
Party: Independent / unaligned
Role: Head of state
Status: Historical figure

Position

Zine El Abidine Ben Ali governs without formal party mediation and has no source documents on file yet, so no individual position is assigned.

On the record

Quotes attributed to Zine El Abidine Ben Ali that have passed verification. Each carries a year, the context of the statement, and at least one source citation. Browse the full corpus or play the "Who said it?" game.

I have understood you. I understand all of you — the unemployed, those in need, the politicians and those who demand more freedom. I understand all of you.

فهمتكم. فهمتكم جميعاً، العاطلون عن العمل والمحتاجون والسياسيون والذين يطالبون بمزيد من الحرية. فهمتكم جميعاً.

2011 January 13 2011 televised address — the day before the speaker fled the country — promising not to run for re-election and to lift internet restrictions. lemonde.fr · en.wikipedia.org

How to cite

Each record carries a retrieval date because the dataset is live — individual entries update as verification deepens. Use the per-record citation when referencing this specific profile; use the dataset citation below when referencing the project as a whole.

In-text: (Gara, 2026)

Per-record citation

APA 7Reference list · academic default

Gara, T. (2026). Zine El Abidine Ben Ali [Politician profile]. Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/pol/ben-ali

Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals

Gara, Tarek. 2026. "Zine El Abidine Ben Ali." Politician profile, Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset. Accessed June 21, 2026. https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/pol/ben-ali.

BibTeXFor LaTeX / Zotero / reference managers

@misc{tayyar-ben-ali,
  title     = {{Zine El Abidine Ben Ali}},
  author    = {Gara, Tarek},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset},
  type      = {Politician profile},
  url       = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/pol/ben-ali},
  urldate   = {2026-06-21},
  note      = {First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.}
}

Dataset / working-paper citation

If you're citing Tayyar as a project rather than this individual record.

APA 7Preprint

Gara, T. (2026). Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset [Preprint]. Retrieved June 21, 2026, from https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper

BibTeXPreprint

@unpublished{tayyar-preprint,
  title  = {{Tayyar: A MENA political-position dataset}},
  author = {Gara, Tarek},
  year   = {2026},
  type   = {Preprint},
  url    = {https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/paper},
  urldate = {2026-06-21},
  note   = {Living document, regenerated from the live dataset on page load.}
}

First-pass entry; second-pass external review planned before publication.