Gender had nothing to do with it.

Submitted by Mikey (United States), Apr 27, 2011 at 03:18

Contrary to comments by some others, the Gender of the "Police Officer" really had nothing to do with this. Not counting the 'business as usual' things that came before this.

The first major step was that Bouazizi's uncle complained. The next step, in retaliation for the gall of daring to make such a complaint, was total humiliation of Bouazizi at the hand of the "offended" officer. The fact that the officer was female only made the humiliation easier to accomplish. However, had the officer been male, some other form of humiliation, probably of a greater degree, would have been employed.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".