THE British-born beauty who married
Syria’s brutal dictator
Bashar al-Assad has been accused of condoning his atrocities.
Asma al-Assad, who was once seen as a beacon of hope, is regarded as the dictator’s accomplice in a lust for power at any price.
The 42-year-old has been branded the “first lady of hell” as she and her evil husband preside over a regime inflicting horrific chemical attacks on civilians in Syria.
Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, told the Daily Express yesterday he believed she condoned the activities of her husband’s regime.
“I think it’s the analysis of some that they started to get very comfortable in power, and... power corrupts,” he said. “They grew to love the position and the trappings of power and became more comfortable with the authoritarian bent of the regime.
"After seven years of seeing such horrific levels of carnage, destruction and displacement, it’s hard to believe that she and others at the top of the regime are not fully aware of what’s going on.”
Mrs al-Assad’s was brought up in Acton, west London. The daughter of a Syrian-British cardiologist father and a Syrian diplomat mother, she went to a Church of England school where she was known as Emma.
She was said to be studious, funny and friendly, though with an occasional short fuse. She studied French and computing at King’s College, London, and became a banker in New York.
She met her husband while he was training as an ophthalmologist in London. They married after he became president following the death of his father. She was 25.
Mrs al-Assad, a mother of three, rarely gives interviews, but after a series of atrocities in Syria, attracting global condemnation, she spoke out in October 2016.
She criticised the West for what she called double standards in portraying the war, saying media coverage of child casualties differed “depending on the loyalties of their parents”.
She said she used her position as First Lady to organise assistance for displaced people, wounded Syrian Army soldiers and families of “martyrs” who died in the war.
Mrs al-Assad also disclosed she had turned down offers of financial security and safety for her children if she fled the wartorn country. There have been frequent calls for her to be stripped of her UK citizenship.
She is subject to European Union sanctions that make it illegal to render her economic assistance and ban her from travelling in the EU with the exception of the UK, as she holds British nationality.
In 2012, WikiLeaks published thousands of emails allegedly from her office which revealed she was more concerned about shopping than the violence around her.