Widespread protests have broken out across multiple Tunisian provinces, with demonstrators demanding jobs, development and dignity — the same rallying cries that drove the January 2011 revolution that toppled longtime leader Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The unrest began in earnest on September 17 in Menzel Bouzaiane, within Sidi Bouzid province (the symbolic birthplace of the 2011 uprising), and has since spread to Kasserine in central-western Tunisia, where unemployed university graduates and their families are demanding enforcement of a 2025 law guaranteeing their entry into public-sector jobs, as well as to the southern province of Gabes. President Kais Saied responded by convening an emergency meeting with senior ministers on September 15 to discuss next year's budget, pledging regional balance and job creation — though for many Tunisians, such promises echo years of unfulfilled commitments.