Syrian President Assad’s wife Asma starts breast cancer treatment

Syrian first lady Asma al-Assad has started treatment for early stage breast cancer. 

An official Facebook photo showed President Bashar Assad smiling next to his British-born wife in hospital as she sat with an IV in her left arm.

A statement posted with the photo said a ‘malignant tumor’ was discovered in its early stages and wished her a speedy recovery.

This photo posted on the official Facebook page of the Syrian Presidency, shows Syrian President Bashar Assad sitting next to his wife Asma Assad with an IV in her left arm

The government did not reveal where she is being treated. 

Such public announcements are uncommon in the Arab world, where cancer is considered a taboo.

Asma Assad’s parents are from the central province of Homs but she was born and raised in London before moving back to Syria after meeting the president.

The two have been married for 18 years and have three children, Hafez, Zein and Karim.

Mrs Al-Assad’s marriage to Mr Al-Assad was announced by state media six months after he assumed the presidency in July 2000 following the death of his father Hafez.

The former investment banker styled herself as a progressive rights advocate and was seen as the modern side of the Assad dynasty.

She did not appear much in public in the first few years of the uprising, but over the past two years has been a lot more active.

Last week, state media said relatives of Russian military personnel met with Mrs Assad (right)

Last week, state media said relatives of Russian military personnel met with Mrs Assad (right)

While her husband faces calls to tried as a war criminal, Mrs Assad, who grew up in Acton, described the world’s reaction as ‘propaganda’ against the regime.

On her Instagram account, she wrote in Arabic: ‘The presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic affirms that what America has done is an irresponsible act that only reflects a short-sightedness, a narrow horizon, a political and military blindness to reality, and a naive pursuit of a frenzied false propaganda campaign that fueled the regime’s arrogance,’ she wrote in Arabic on her Instagram account.’

Her parents, both Sunni Muslims, moved from Syria to London in the Fifties so that her father, who is now based at the Cromwell Hospital and in Harley Street, could get the best possible education and medical training.

She was educated at a Church of England school in Ealing before attending a private girls’ day school — Queen’s College, Harley Street.

Those who knew her said that, given that she spent the first 25 years of her life in London, Mrs Assad had liberal western values.



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