On 23 October 2011, Tunisia's first free election after the revolution produced long lines before polling stations opened. Near the Tunis casbah, the woman at the front had waited since 5:45 a.m. and said she was voting for the first time in her life.
What distinguishes this queue is not ordinary polling congestion. A person long denied a meaningful vote chose an almost sleepless morning to exercise it first. The hours in line were brief beside the decades spent waiting for the right itself.