TUNIS, Tunisia, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- Peaceful revolution in Tunisia shows how the Arab world can undergo meaningful reform without dramatic upheaval, a party leader said.
A December protest suicide sparked the country's Jasmine Revolution, which led to the ouster of President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali after roughly two decades in office. That revolution later spilled over to encompass much of the region, pushing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak out of office, leaving Moammar Gadhafi dead and Syrian and Yemeni regimes under fire.
Rachid Ghannouchi, leader of the moderate Islamic Ennahda party, told al-Jazeera that Tunisia was a model for regional civil disobedience.
"Changing the internal systems of these regimes failed and changing them through violence also failed," he said of the so-called Arab Spring. "Tunisia came up with a third way which is the peaceful revolution."
Ennahda took the plurality of the vote in the late October vote for a constitutional assembly in Tunisia. Party leaders said it was tolerant of other groups and embraced the rights of women.
The party is tasked with leading a new assembly in drafting a post-revolution constitution.
