<P> The demonstrations were caused by high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, a lack of political freedoms like freedom of speech and poor living conditions . The protests constituted the most dramatic wave of social and political unrest in Tunisia in three decades and resulted in scores of deaths and injuries, most of which were the result of action by police and security forces against demonstrators . </P> <P> The protests were sparked by the self - immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi on 17 December 2010 and led to the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali 28 days later on 14 January 2011, when he officially resigned after fleeing to Saudi Arabia, ending 23 years in power . Labour unions were an integral part of the protests . The Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet was awarded the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize for "its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Tunisian Revolution of 2011". The protests inspired similar actions throughout the Arab world, known as the Arab Spring . </P> <P> In Tunisia and the wider Arab world, the protests and change in government are called the Revolution or sometimes the Sidi Bouzid Revolt, derived from Sidi Bouzid, the city where the initial protests began . In the Western media, these events have been dubbed the Jasmine Revolution or Jasmine Spring after Tunisia's national flower and in keeping with the geopolitical nomenclature of "color revolutions". The name "Jasmine Revolution" originated from American journalist Andy Carvin, but it was not widely adopted in Tunisia itself . In fact, the debate surrounding the name and the poetic influences behind the Tunisian revolution was a popular question among Tunisian intellectuals themselves as seen in the following article: Tunisia's revolution of dignity and freedom cannot be color - coded . The name adopted in Tunisia was the Dignity Revolution, which is a translation of the Tunisian Arabic name for the revolution ثورة الكرامة (Thawrat al - Karāmah). Within Tunisia, Ben Ali's rise to power in 1987 was also known as the Jasmine Revolution . </P> <P> President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali had ruled Tunisia since 1987, mostly as a one - party state with the Democratic Constitutional Rally (known as the RCD) in power . His government was characterized by the development of Tunisia's private sector in favor of foreign investment, and the repression of political opposition . Foreign media and NGOs criticized his government, which was supported by the United States and France . As a result, the initial reactions to Ben Ali's abuses by the U.S. and France were muted, and most instances of socio - political protest in the country, when they occurred at all, rarely made major news headlines . </P>

Why is the tunisian revolution called the jasmine revolution