Asma al-Assad born 11 August 1975 is the British-born First Lady of Syria. She moved to Syria to marry President Bashar al-Assad in December 2000, having previously pursued a career in investment banking.
Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad may be fashionable, but she isn’t exactly thoughtful about her image. While her country has spent the last year in the midst of a bloody and tumultuous civil war, according to thousands of personal emails obtained by The Guardian, al-Assad has been shopping up a storm.
Syrian First Lady’s $63,650 Mid-Conflict Luxury Shopping List
Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad may be fashionable, but she isn’t exactly thoughtful about her image. While her country has spent the last year in the midst of a bloody and tumultuous civil war, according to thousands of personal emails obtained by The Guardian, al-Assad has been shopping up a storm.
Very Fashionable and spender
Based on The Guardian’s summary and our parsing of the emails, al-Assad has spent thousands and thousands of dollars on jewellery, shoes, furniture, and art. We’ve handily converted the currencies to U.S. dollars (based on current exchange) so that the full extent of her purchase power is clear. Some of the things she bought:
A $4,150 Ming Vase from Harrods (on sale for 15% off!)
An Armani light
$13,500 worth of Christian Louboutin shoes, though it’s unclear whether she actually purchased any. In the email, she forwards an exclusive offer to two of friends, noting “these pieces are not made for general public”. Sadly, neither of them went for it, responding, “I don’t think they’re not [sic] going 2 b useful any time soon unfortunately.. And my shoe closet doesn’t need more friends.. So I’m gonna pass as well..”
$46,000 of chandeliers, tables, and candlesticks from a furniture store in Paris.
Bedside tables from London-based Baker Furniture that sadly did not match.
Four necklaces from a fine jewelry boutique in Paris, though al-Assad notes that she is “absolutely clueless when it comes to fine jewelry”. Here is how she described them:
- 1 Turquoise with yellow gold diamonds and small pave on side
- 1 Cornaline with yellow gold diamonds and small pave on side
- 1 Full Black Onyx with yellow gold diamonds and small pave on side
- 1 Amethyst with white gold diamonds and small pave on side.
She also emailed a London art dealer inquiring about pieces ranging from $7,000 to $55,000.
Syria government is a dictatorship, not unlike Egypt and Libya, where spirited — and violent –demands for democratic government have been watched by the world. By contrast, Vogue‘s story about Al-Assad pays no attention to the conflict in her neighbourhood, and instead frames her as “a rose in the desert.” Her day starts at 6 am, and she’s as busy with the work of raising three children as she is with supporting her husband Bashar al-Assad, who was elected in 2000 after the previous president, his father. (“In Syria,” the story notes, “power is hereditary.”)
Is she a dictator?
As the Syrian death toll continues to mount, countries from around the world have vehemently condemned its leader Bashar al-Assad for prolonging his bloody, year-long crackdown on unrest. But the dictator and his London-born wife Asma al-Assad appear to live in a surreal psychological bubble, insulated from the grotesque violence that has claimed the lives of 8,000 Syrians, according to a cache of some 3,000 alleged emails and documents obtained by Syrian activists and published by the Guardian Wednesday. The supposed emails portray a dictator both sentimental and sinister. Assad, who allegedly used the email address Sam@alshahba.com according to the hacked emails, took to his iPad to send his wife American country music favorites from iTunes and to search for "America's Got Talent" videos. In addition to the light fare, he also sent out rabidly paranoid articles to his inner circle that accuse the American envoy to Syria of recruiting al-Qaida-linked "Arab 'death squads'" to try to topple him, as the Guardian reports:
Assad's emails reveal his inner fears and suspicions. On 16 October, as the UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, called for international action to avoid "full-blown civil war" in Syria, Assad circulated from his iPad an article to a list of undisclosed recipients an article alleging that the US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, was responsible for "recruiting Arab 'death squads' from al-Qaida-affiliated units in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Chechnya to fight against Syrian military and police".
