Asma al-Assad

Asma Fawaz Akhras, born on 11 August 1975 in London, is the wife of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and was first lady of Syria from their marriage in December 2000 until the fall of the regime on 8 December 2024. Born and raised in London to Syrian parents, she worked in investment banking before her marriage, then headed the Syria Trust for Development and oversaw a network of social and development organisations. Since the fall of the regime she and her husband have been living in self-imposed exile in Russia, according to the article. ^{1 2}

Asma Akhras was born in London to Fawaz Akhras, a cardiologist at the Cromwell Hospital, and Sahar Akhras (née Otri), a retired diplomat who served as first secretary at the Syrian embassy in London; her parents are Sunni Muslims from the city of Homs. She grew up in Acton, London, attended Twyford Church of England High School and then Queen's College, London, a private girls' school, where friends nicknamed her "Emma". She holds British citizenship. ^{1 2}

She graduated from King's College London in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in computer science, and speaks Arabic, English, French and Spanish. ^{1 2}

After graduating, she worked as an economics analyst at Deutsche Bank Group in the hedge fund management division, with clients in Europe and East Asia, and in 1998 joined the investment banking division of J.P. Morgan, on a team specialising in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. She credits her banking experience for her "analytical thinking" and ability to "understand the business side of running a company". She was planning to begin an MBA at Harvard University when she married Bashar al-Assad in December 2000, resigned from investment banking and moved to Syria. ^{1 2}

After the wedding she travelled to 100 villages in 13 of Syria's 14 governorates to meet Syrians and learn where to direct her policies, and went on to create a collection of organisations working under the government's charity sector, known as the Syria Trust for Development, which she headed. According to the media analysts cited in the article, she focused on women's rights and education, supported efforts to activate the role of young people, and took an interest in assisting people with special needs. ^{1 2}

The United Nations Development Programme spent US$18 million helping to organise reform initiatives a key part of which was creating "a reformer's aura" for the government by highlighting her participation in the Syria Trust, until the programme was suspended as the country descended into civil war. By 2020, observers noted that she had extended her influence within the government: the Trust became active again, its members moved into influential positions, and nine activists from the charity and development sector connected to the Trust won seats in the 2020 parliamentary election. ¹

This section should be read as an account of positions and accusations reported by the sources, not as the museum's judgement on them. The English and Arabic encyclopaedia articles carried these positions, and the museum has not reviewed the original statements of the parties.

Sanctions: on 23 March 2012 the European Union froze her assets and imposed a travel ban on her and other close family members of President Bashar al-Assad as part of escalating sanctions on the Syrian government; she remained able to travel to the United Kingdom because of her British citizenship. The United States also sanctioned and blacklisted her, accused of obstructing efforts toward a political solution to the war. Along with her husband, she was considered one of the "main economic players" in Syria, controlling large parts of the business, banking, telecommunications, real estate and maritime sectors. ^{1 2}

The "Rose in the Desert" affair: in February 2011 Vogue published a flattering profile by Joan Juliet Buck that described Syria as "a place without bombings, unrest, or kidnappings" because of the regime's intense surveillance and called the Assad family "wildly democratic". Vogue removed the profile from its website that spring without editorial comment; its editor later stated that Syria's priorities and values were "completely at odds" with those of Vogue, and The New York Times reported that the family had paid a Washington public relations firm $5,000 a month to act as liaison with the magazine. In August 2012 Buck herself wrote a harshly critical piece in The Telegraph describing Asma al-Assad as the "First Lady of Hell" for being compliant in the regime's war crimes. ¹

The leaked emails: leaked emails attributed to the president and his wife, reported by CNN and carried in the Arabic article, quote her writing to a friend, "I am the real dictator" in the family, in reference to her position inside the president's inner circle, and show, according to the reports, no doubts about the security campaign the regime was waging. ²

Her stance during the war: she was criticised for remaining silent at the beginning of the Syrian uprising. Her first official statement to international media came in February 2012, nearly a year after the first serious protests, in an email to The Times: "The President is the President of Syria, not a faction of Syrians, and the First Lady supports him in that role." In April 2012 the wives of the German and British ambassadors to the United Nations released a video asking her to stand up for peace and urge her husband to end the bloodshed. ¹

The British investigation: in March 2021 the War Crimes unit of London's Metropolitan Police opened a preliminary investigation into allegations that she incited and encouraged terrorist acts during the war, involving the "systematic approach to the torture and murder of civilians, including with the use of chemical weapons". The Sunday Times reported that the Guernica 37 international law firm had submitted evidence of her influence among the ruling class and her public support for the Syrian armed forces, and that her attendance at any British trial was unlikely. ^{1 2}

The fall of the regime and exile: in late November 2024 she fled Syria to Russia with her three children, ahead of the opposition offensive that ousted her husband on 8 December. Despite her British citizenship, UK foreign secretary David Lammy confirmed she was no longer welcome in the United Kingdom, citing the sanctions against her. On 23 December 2024 media outlets cited a Turkish source reporting that she had filed for divorce from Bashar during their exile in Moscow; the reports were later denied by the Russian government and by her father. ¹

She first met Bashar al-Assad during childhood holidays in Syria, and they became closer when he moved to London in 1992 to train as an ophthalmologist. They married in December 2000, months after his accession to power, and had three children: Hafez (born 2001), Zein (2003) and Karim (2004). ^{1 2}

In August 2018 it was announced that she had begun treatment for early-stage breast cancer, and in August 2019 she stated that she had fully recovered. On 21 May 2024 the Syrian presidency announced that she had been diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and was undergoing treatment requiring isolation and withdrawal from direct work and events. Reports in late 2024 said the leukemia had returned after a brief remission and that she was in critical condition; in December 2025 The Guardian reported that her health had recovered after experimental therapy under the supervision of Russia's security services. ^{1 2}

In her first years Asma al-Assad was the modernising face the Syrian government presented to the West — a British-born, British-educated first lady working in development and charities — before her global image became bound to the war and the sanctions. The Arabic article records early honours: "First Arab Woman" from the Arab Women's Authority in 2008, the gold medal of the Italian presidency in the same year, and an honorary doctorate from La Sapienza University in 2004. ^{1 2}

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