Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad Diagnosed with Leukemia
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s wife, Asma, who overcame breast cancer in 2019, has now been diagnosed with leukemia, according to an announcement from the president’s office on Tuesday.
“First Lady Asma al-Assad has been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia,” the statement read. She will undergo a specialized treatment that necessitates social distancing to avoid infection and will temporarily step away from public duties.
In 2019, Asma declared herself “totally” free of breast cancer after a year-long battle with the disease.
— Syrian Presidency (@Presidency_Sy) May 21, 2024
Born in Britain in 1975, the former investment banker initially presented herself as a progressive advocate for rights and a modern face of the Assad regime before Syria’s brutal civil war began in 2011.
Asma is often seen accompanying her husband during his rare official visits abroad, with their appearances frequently featured in state media. She was once praised as “A Rose in the Desert” in a now-notorious Vogue cover story, a perception that shifted dramatically as she supported her husband’s harsh crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
She established the Syria Trust for Development charity, one of the few such organizations permitted to operate in government-controlled areas.
Controversies and Sanctions
Critics have accused Asma of consolidating power over Syria’s economy. The economic publication Syria Report noted, “The humanitarian sector in Syria has become increasingly profitable, especially for sanctioned individuals like Asma.”
In June 2020, the United States imposed sanctions on her and many of the president’s family and associates. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that Asma, with support from her husband and her own Akhras family, had “become one of Syria’s most notorious war profiteers.”
In 2016, The Guardian reported that two UN agencies had partnered with Asma’s Syria Trust charity, spending a total of $8.5 million.
Asma, whose father is a cardiologist and mother is a diplomat, has two sons and a daughter with Assad.
News of her leukemia diagnosis coincides with the trial of three top Syrian security officers in absentia by a Paris court for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes. This marks the first trial in France of Assad government officials, focusing on their alleged involvement in the deaths of two French-Syrian men, Mazzen Dabbagh and his son Patrick, arrested in Damascus in 2013.
Since the civil war began in 2011, more than half a million people have died and millions have been displaced following the government’s crackdown on protests against Assad’s rule.
