In less volatile times, the memory of the Arab spring would be fresh in our minds. But with the Iran war already stealing attention from Gaza (let alone Ukraine), you may forget the intensity of the revolutionary wave across north Africa and the Middle East 15 years ago.
That was when social media came into its own, building solidarity as people took to the streets in pro-democracy protests: in Tunisia where fruit seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire; in Libya where the people rose up against Col Gaddafi; and in Egypt where protests across the country and especially in Cairo’s Tahrir Square led to the ousting of President Mubarak. At the time, it felt like things were changing for the better.
Mariem Omari was there to see it, first as an observer for the UN relief and works agency, then compiling human rights reports for Médecins du Monde. An Arabic speaker from a Lebanese-Scottish family, she arrived in Jordan to keep an eye on Israel and Iraq a few months before receiving reports of unrest in Tunisia.
Her play, Revolution Days, is based on those events. Samira, an idealistic young aid worker, full of gung-ho spirit, goes from observing the aftermath of settler violence in the West Bank and the effects of American white phosphorus gas in Iraq to more direct encounters with rebels and refugees displaced by government forces.
Played by a sparky Olivia Hemmati in Shilpa T-Hyland’s production for the Citizens and Omari’s Bijli company, Samira is at once a dispassionate observer, a champion of change and a psychologically vulnerable young woman. She thinks she can catalogue the evidence of rape, injury and hunger with impunity, but the hair falling out of her head tells a different story. Her fury at the world’s inaction only serves to further damage her mental health. This fearless aid worker is diagnosed with secondary traumatic stress.
In this way, the play is less about the politics behind the days of revolution, captured in photographs projected behind Hemmati, and more about the humanitarian impact of civil unrest. If the abuses are generalised, the sense of the observer’s helpless outrage is true.
• At Citizens theatre, Glasgow, until 23 May. Touring until 20 June.
