Britain-born Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad has been diagnosed with leukemia, the Syrian presidency said on Tuesday.
The announcement came nearly five years after the 48-year-old announced she had fully recovered from breast cancer.
The statement said Asma would undergo a special treatment protocol that would require him to isolate himself and that he would stay away from public engagements.
In August 2019, Asma said she had fully recovered from breast cancer which she said had been discovered early.
Since Syria plunged into war in 2011, the British-born former investment banker has taken on the public role of leading charity efforts and meeting families of dead soldiers, but he has also been hated by the opposition.
Britain-born Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad (pictured, file photo) has been diagnosed with leukemia, the Syrian presidency said on Tuesday. The announcement came almost five years after the 48-year-old announced that she had fully recovered from breast cancer.
Asma al-Assad, wife of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, votes during the country’s presidential election in Douma, Syria, with her husband in this file photo taken in 2021.
He heads the Syria Trust for Development, a large NGO that acts as the umbrella organization for many of the aid and development operations in Syria.
Last year, she accompanied her husband, President Bashar al-Assad, on a visit to the United Arab Emirates, her first official trip abroad with him since 2011.
He met Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the Emirati president’s mother, during a trip seen as a public sign of his growing role in public affairs.
Born in London, the former investment banker called herself a progressive human rights advocate and was seen as the modern side of the Assad dynasty.
The Assads have long worked to present themselves as modern, forward-thinking leaders, even as Syria was convulsed by a civil war that was sparked by a rebellion against the family’s decades-long rule.
The first lady, whose father is a cardiologist and whose mother is a diplomat, has two sons and a daughter with Assad.
Asma Assad’s parents are from the central Syrian province of Homs, but she was born and raised in London before returning to Syria after meeting the president.
The couple’s marriage was announced by state media six months after he became president in July 2000 following the death of his father Hafez.
This photo from the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency on August 8, 2018, shows Syrian President Bashar Assad sitting next to his wife Asma Assad with an IV in his left arm.
Asma al-Assad is seen with her hair covered while receiving cancer treatment in 2018.
Born in London, Asma (pictured in 2018, file photo), a former investment banker, called herself a progressive human rights advocate and was seen as the modern side of the Assad dynasty.
In 2019, Asma (pictured at the time) announced that she was “completely free” of breast cancer, a year after being diagnosed with the disease.
The Assads have long worked to present themselves as modern, forward-thinking leaders, even as Syria was convulsed by a civil war that was sparked by a rebellion against the family’s decades-long rule. The couple is seen in February 2023 visiting a girl who was injured in an earthquake in Syria (file photo)
Asma Assad picks roses during the Damask Rose Harvest Festival in the village of al-Marah in the mountainous region of Qalamoun, Syria, on May 25, 2023.
Over the years, Asma Assad has faced harsh criticism for not speaking out against or stopping her husband’s violent regime.
Activists and insurgents accuse her of being complicit in the atrocities they accuse the Syrian government of committing. The UN has accused government forces of carrying out widespread massacres and attacks against civilians.
In a report published in August 2014, the international organization stated that people were systematically murdered, tortured and raped, as well as forcibly disappeared.
This, he claimed, amounted to crimes against humanity.
Those accusations persist to this day, and the effects of the war are still acutely felt, having caused a vast humanitarian crisis.
The war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, began as peaceful protests against Assad’s government in March 2011. The protests were met with a brutal repression and the revolt quickly escalated. in a full-blown civil war.
As a result, Asma’s husband’s enemies have nicknamed her “the lady of death.”
Meanwhile, her supporters have praised her as “the jasmine of Damascus.”
In 2019, Asma announced that she was “completely free” of breast cancer, a year after she was diagnosed with the disease.
The Syrian civil war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half of the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, began as peaceful protests against Assad’s government in March 2011. The protests were responded with brutal repression and the revolt quickly escalated into a full-blown civil war. Pictured: An Aleppo neighborhood reduced to rubble in 2017 (file photo)
Syrian soldiers hold Baath Party flags and a portrait of Syrian President Bashar Assad in Arabic saying “Yes to the leader of victory”, as they celebrate on the outskirts of the city of Douma, in the eastern Ghouta region, near the capital Syria, Damascus, May. 26, 2021 (file photo)
Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad seen in a car in Paris on December 10, 2010.
In an interview on state television at the time, she encouraged women to go for regular checkups, saying early detection of illnesses can be crucial to survival.
His decision to make his diagnosis public was a rare statement in the Arab world, where prominent figures often hide their ailments.
Assad had previously been photographed attending military hospitals for treatment, with her husband Bashar Assad by her side.
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