'She listens to and comforts the bereaved': Assad's British-born wife speaks for first time as husband tries to crush opposition
- Asma Assad appears to offer full support to husband in the email
- Sparks anger from activists who say she is 'delusional'
By Daily Mail UK
Silence broken: Asma Assad, the British-born wife of Syria's president, has spoken for the first time since the country's uprising began last March
The British-born wife of Syria's president has spoken for the first time since the country’s uprising began last March.
In a carefully worded email, Asma Assad appears to offer full support to her husband Bashar as his security forces try to crush the opposition.
'The President is the President of Syria, not a faction of Syrians, and the First Lady supports him in that role,' she told The Times.
'These days she is equally involved in bridging gaps and encouraging dialogue. She listens to and comforts the families of the victims of the violence.'
Mrs Assad, 36, approved the text following a critical article in the newspaper last week.
It had asked what an educated woman, raised in liberal Britain and with a long record of good works, must think of the slaughter, torture and imprisonment of thousands.
But her statement that she was comforting the bereaved was greeted with anger by Syrian experts and opposition activists.
They said she had an 'ostrich attitude' and was delusional.
The email followed claims last month that Syrian security forces tried to smuggle her, and her children, out of the country.
They were reportedly in a convoy, also carrying the president's mother and cousin, intercepted by brigades of army defectors, that came under heavy fire as they made their way to Damascus airport. They were forced to turn back to the city's presidential palace.
Fleeing: Asma (right), the wife of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and their two children, seven-year-old Karim (right) and nine-year-old Zein (left) are believed to have been caught trying to flee, it has been claimed
Cold comfort: The email said Asma Assad was helping the bereaved to cope. Pictured here are the victims of shelling by the Syrian army in the Khalidiya neighbourhood in Homs
And it comes as her husband ordered an intensification of a crackdown on protesters, which has so far killed more than 5,400 rebels, and was visited by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov to discuss ways to try to end the uprising.
The email is the first communication Asma Assad, who grew up in Acton, West London, has had with international media in 11 months.
Assad, who was known as Emma during her childhood, is the daughter of consultant cardiologist Fawaz Akhras and retired diplomat Sahar Otri, both Sunni Muslims.
They moved from Syria to London in the Fifties so that her father, who is now based at the Cromwell Hospital and in Harley Street, could get the best possible education and medical training.
Asma, who holds dual citizenship, British and Syrian, was educated at a Church of England school in Ealing before attending a private girls’ day school - Queen’s College, Harley Street.
From Queen’s, where she achieved four A-levels, Asma went to King’s College London to read Computer Science and take a diploma in French Literature.
She graduated with a First and, after six months of travelling, joined Deutsche Bank as an analyst in hedge-fund management.
Royal connections: The Queen (right) met Syrian President Bashar Assad (centre) and his wife Asma (left) at Buckingham Palace in 2002
Bombed out: Asma Assad said she still supported her husband, who has launched a crackdown on opposition groups in recent months
She then moved to the investment bank JP Morgan and worked in Paris and New York, as well as London. It was on family holidays back in Syria that she met Bashar.
Then he, too, came to London to study ophthalmology, though he had to leave early to return to Syria after his elder brother Basil, who had been the heir, died in a car crash.
Asma started seeing him in secret, resigning from JP Morgan just a month before the wedding without being able to explain the real reason.
With her father, she has set up several London-based charities such as the Syria Heritage.
Vogue has described her as ‘the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies’ and she has topped French Elle’s ‘most stylish woman in politics’ list.
In Damascus, Bashar and Asma now live in a flat with plate-glass windows and their three boys go to a Montessori school.
She speaks four languages and her connections with France have led her to persuade the Louvre to help her open Syrian cultural attractions.
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