BAGHDAD - A jobless 30-year-old man in northern Iraq set himself on fire on Sunday in protest at his plight and later died of his injuries, a hospital source said.
| This is what set off problems in Tunisia and other Arab countries, so we should pay attention. |
"A 30-year-old jobless man with four children set himself on fire and died," said the source at the General Hospital in the northern city of Mosul.
He said the man had committed suicide near the city's Tahrir ("Liberation") Square, which shares the same name as the Cairo epicentre of the popular uprising that toppled Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Friday.
| There seem to be Tahrir Squares all over the Arab world. Liberation was once a popular concept, it seems. |
There has been a rash of copycat suicides or attempted suicides across the Arab world ever since a 26-year-old unlicensed fruit vendor in Tunisia set himself on fire last December in an act of protest. His action triggered an uprising that ousted Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali before later spreading to Egypt.
According to figures from the United Nations, unemployment in Mosul is running at 17 percent. |