British-born Syrian first lady has cancer
SYRIA’S BRITISH-BORN first lady Asma Assad has begun treatment for breast cancer.
The Syrian presidency posted on its Facebook page a photo of President Bashar Assad sitting next to his wife in a hospital room with an IV drip in her left arm.
The accompanying statement said the “malignant tumour” was discovered in its early stages. Such public announcements are unusual in the Arab world, where cancer is considered a taboo.
State news agency SANA said the first lady is undergoing treatment at a military hospital in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
The 42-year-old Asma Assad is originally from the central province of Homs. She was born and raised in the UK before moving back to Syria after meeting the president.
Since Syria’s civil war broke out, Mrs Assad has mostly been seen in public receiving families of fallen soldiers, or hosting people wounded in the conflict, now in its eighth year, which has killed more than 400,000 people.
Before the crisis began in March 2011, she was the subject of flattering profiles in and other fashion magazines.
In 2009, introduced its readers to the “sexy Brit” who was “bringing Syria in from the cold”.
As Syria’s conflict worsened, the first lady became a target of contempt as people came to see her as whitewashing atrocities carried out by her husband’s government.
Asma and Bashar Assad have been married for 18 years and have three children, Hafez, Zein and Karim.