The glamorous face of the Syrian regime

Asma Assad is known in Syria as ‘al akilatu al rais’ (the President’s wife), but outside the country, the media has seized on another aspect of her identity: the fact that she is British born. She grew up in this country, amid the tradition of free speech, in an area that I happen to know well – she even went to the same school as me. Before Syria erupted in violence, it was suggested that her British background was of some significance in defining her role as the wife of the President.

The media presented an image of a woman who was not so much interested in bridging the divide between the two cultures as questioning why such a division existed in the first place. The media encouraged us to speculate about her role as the wife of a tyrant, and now, beneath the shadow of civil war, I cannot help but wonder about her attitude toward the violence that is tearing her country apart. Images of the injured journalists trapped inside Syria imply a very different relationship between Asma Assad and the foreign press.

Assad represents a paradox. Speaking publicly in 2009, she voiced an interest in reform in Syria: “What we are trying to do is make sure the progress we are making across the country is inclusive to everybody.” When she was not seen in public for a prolonged period after the start of the uprising, her belief in reform sparked question marks over the extent of her endorsement of Assad’s regime.

Recently, however, she came out in support of her husband and his policies in a public rally. There was a further show of unity when she accompanied him to vote on Sunday’s referendum.
But even as Syrians went to the polls, President Assad’s forces kept up a barrage on the centre of Homs, the hometown of his wife’s family. Nor can she be unaware that the ‘democratic’ voting has been undermined by cynicism, and the elections have been boycotted by the two main opposition parties.

Asma Assad has not severed her connections with the Western media. She recently sent a message to the Times, whose renowned journalist Marie Colvin was killed last week. In it she said she filled her days listening to and comforting the victims of violence. Who knows what difference she could have made and what leverage she can exert, but inevitably Colvin’s death and the plight of the injured British journalist, Paul Conroy (who had to be smuggled across the border) reveals tensions between her joint British and Syrian citizenship.

The Times said the Syrian Government offered a “lame apology” for the deaths of international journalists, rightly calling for Mrs. Assad to ensure their bodies are brought home as soon as possible. Whilst she may well be engaged in comforting the injured, I know from my own Muslim background that she also understands the need to show respect for the dead as a swift and dignified burial is a fundamental part of Muslim rites.

There is no doubt that Asma Assad has faced a challenge with her transition from West London. As a Muslim in the church school we both attended, she experienced tolerance and respect. But just because she grew up in this country, she cannot necessarily influence a regime chronically lacking in both.

Perhaps it was a mistake to assume that she wielded any power in the past, but with her husband’s crackdown she has remained silent and made no attempt to get proper medical help to wounded journalists.

The UN has estimated that almost 7,500 people have died in President Assad’s crackdown on rebellions in the country. This is a tragedy that Asma Assad might not have foreseen, but she seems powerless – or too afraid – to do anything about it.