he went to a tunis hospital with his entourage and paid a bedside visit to the fruit vendor, mohammed bouazizi was barely alive. >> mhirsi: that picture was shocking. you could see nothing of bouazizi. he was surrounded by band-aids like a mummy. obviously, he was in a coma. and then, you have all these politicians coming inside the room. >> simon: bouazizi died january 4. word went out on facebook to take to the streets. the message was received. on january 14, tens of thousands brought the nation's capital, tunis, to a halt. now, the world started paying attention. >> degage! >> simon: "degage"-- "get out," they shouted at ben ali. zied mhirsi was there. >> mhirsi: oh, it was fantastic to be there on that day. there was everybody-- young, poor, rich, educated, women, men. every part of the tunisian society was represented in that demonstration that asked ben ali to get out. >> simon: the protesters thought it was entirely possible that ben ali would order the army to fire on them. but they didn't budge. to their astonishment, it was ben ali who panicked. he fled the country, went to saudi ar