She is not the face you are expecting.
Smooth skin, clear eyes, softly curled hair. A navy blue, slightly off-the-shoulder blouse with a brooch on her right beast.
Asma al-Assad is the First Lady of Syria. She has a British accent, she was schooled at King’s College in London and she is married to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Her country is falling apart and she’s still smiling for Instagram.
Last week, we saw Syrian children being hosed down as chemicals burnt their skin. It was a rebel-held town in the Idlib province where the Syrian government allegedly dropped chemical bombs that killed 89 people, many of them children.
The same week, on the Instagram account run by, or dedicated to, to the country’s First Lady, we saw a ‘throw back’ to an interview she did in 2009, in the city of Damascus. She can be seen talking to a journalist in a park, a peaceful street in the background.
Mia Freedman, Monique Bowley and Jessie Stephens discuss whether Asma Al Assad can be held accountable for her husband’s actions on the latest episode of Mamamia Out Loud. Post continues below.
Top Comments
Playing devils advocate here....
Did it ever occur to you that the brave face may hide threats against her and/or her children possibly from her own husband? With everything going its entirely possible that she is being forced
How many other women around the world have acted perfectly calm and normal to the outside world only to later be found that they were terrified inside because of threats and domestic violence and their lives depended on that acting ability not leaving any clues....
Its never ok to lay judgement without all the facts.. snippets and the tidbits from instagram are NOT the full story
Reminds me of another monarch's response to being informed her subjects were all starving and had no bread - "Let them eat cake" (although this is legend and not necessarily historically accurate). But we all know what happened to her. When the palace falls, Asma will pay dearly for her Instagram life.