[lord tartous]

Syrian First Lady
Words By Alison Thomson

There’s a quiet revolution going on in the Middle East, and it’s being driven by women. When Asma al-Akhras married the president of Syria in December 1999, she joined an elite group of first ladies who are educated, glamorous and prepared to stand up and be counted. They are ardent campaigners on humanitarian and social issues, and for them, taking a back seat is not an option. It is a group that includes Queen Rania of Jordan, Suzanne Mubarak of Egypt, Andree Lahoud of Lebanon and Queen Salma of Morocco, and together they are sending out a message to the rest of the world that the modern Arab woman is intelligent, independent and at the cutting edge of fashion to boot.
Mrs. Assad, now 29, was brought up in London but spoke only Syrian at home – “I didn’t realise until I was seven that my parents could actually speak English,” she says – and spent each summer in her home country. She kept a low profile for the first few months of her new, married life, not, she insists, because she was in hiding, but because it gave her a chance to get to know her people before they knew her. “I was able to spend time meeting other Syrian people,” she recalls. “Because people had no idea who I was, I was able to see what their problems were, their hopes and aspirations.”
Incognito, she joined up with various United Nations-backed programmes being implemented in the rural areas of Syria. Thus, she was able to get a good grasp of the real issues affecting the Syrian people – and no doubt report her findings back to her husband. Three months later, her face would be instantly recognised by everyone, everywhere. “To be honest,” she says, “I wanted to meet ordinary citizens before they met me. Before the world met me.”
And when the world did meet her, in March 2000, it was a groundbreaking moment. Mrs. Assad stepped out in public for the first time with her husband to meet the president of Bulgaria. She was without a veil and wore an above-the-knee skirt. This was not the first country in the region to witness a president’s wife asserting herself as a modern, working woman, but it was not what Syria was used to. In the past four years, however, they have embraced their first lady, who has become a symbol of the efforts of her husband to modernise and reform the country.
Like her counterparts elsewhere in the region, she quickly espoused humanitarian and social causes and has since been a tireless campaigner on various issues, not least education and, most particularly, the advancement of women. Understandably for a woman who herself has a degree in computer science from Kings College London, Mrs. Assad’s interest in the development of her country went straight to the very heart of its potential future. In February last year, to mark Arab Woman Day, she hosted a forum in Damascus, Women and Education – The Development Of A Nation, at which she declared that a woman’s education and work were “an integral part of her identity and national duty. They are not just a fulfilment of economic needs.”

“I WANTED TO MEET ORDINARY CITIZENS
BEFORE THEY MET ME. BEFORE THE WORLD MET ME”

The conference, drew an impressive turnout from the region’s first ladies, many of whom are also educated to degree level – Queen Salma of Morocco, for example, has a degree in engineering and Suzanne Mubarak has a masters in sociology. The forum gave these women a chance to exchange expertise, as well as discuss the means to enhance the role of women in the educational process and in the overall development of their communities. Mrs. Assad’s commitment to improve education standards was further emphasised during her first visit back to the UK as the president’s wife in December 2002, when she discussed literacy programmes with ministers from the department for education and skills.
Economic issues have also been a major focus for Syria’s first lady, inspired by her own experience working as a financial analyst for global institutions such as JP Morgan in London. For example, she took the opportunity on the same trip to the UK to visit a Prince’s Trust scheme for business start-ups. Her conviction that women can and should play a major role in boosting the country’s economy has resulted in her setting up a non-governmental organisation to introduce microfinance to Syria. In June last year, her efforts came to fruition in Yarmouk, in the southwest near Jordan, where she met local entrepreneurs to launch the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa)’s microfinance and microenterprise programme, which loans working capital to small businesses, to give a financial boost to Syria’s least well-off.
The way the loan programme works is to provide credit for those who would not ordinarily be eligible for it – largely because they do not own land that can act as collateral – to start or improve existing businesses. The aim of the programme is to improve the quality of life of these small business owners, sustain jobs, decrease unemployment, reduce poverty, empower women and open up new income-generating opportunities.
Mrs. Assad is also working closely with other development organisations, such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), which has built on the framework of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) of the '90s to help small businesses get off the ground.
Her early excursions 'tagging along’ incognito around the country with development agencies have obviously stood her in good stead and she continues tirelessly to campaign, with her husband, for modernisation and greater opportunities for the average Syrian.
Mrs. Assad shares these goals with her fellow first ladies across the region, and together these women are helping to modernise their countries. But they are doing more than that – they are building bridges with the West in terms of culture and understanding, as well as forging closer links between their own countries. The first ladies frequently attend forums to discuss regional issues, most recently in Beirut at the Women and Armed Conflict conference in March.
It was a two-day meeting, attended by the first ladies of Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan and Bahrain, as well as the sister of King Mohammed VI of Morocco. During the proceedings, the Syrian minister of emigrant affairs Buthaina Shaaban – one of two women appointed to the cabinet by President Assad – called upon women in decision-making positions to play a leading role in spreading peace. The conference concluded with several motions demanding that women be granted an active role in the Arab League and trained to plead for the Arab cause in international organisations. It also called on governments to set up programmes that raise awareness on the destructiveness of wars and how they affect women, children and families.
Amazingly, in the midst of all this activity, Mrs. Assad has had time to start a family: Hafez, named after his grandfather, was born in December 2001. And it is not just Asma who has adopted

“I WAS BORN IN LONDON. I SPENT 25 YEARS IN LONDON.
BUT I ALSO KNOW I’M SYRIAN. I AM BRITISH AND
I AM AN ARAB. I AM PART OF BOTH WORLDS"

a modern approach – her husband is right there with her. The lifestyle they lead in Damascus could not be more different from that of his father. For example, the couple do not live in the presidential palace, but have a modest home in the city centre. And in terms of equality, Asma is said to have her own office in the palace and attends ministerial meetings.
The couple had been friends for years in
London, where they were both students, although, Asma insists, it was never anything more than friendship. Bashar was studying ophthalmology until the tragic death of his older brother Basil in a car accident in 1994, when he returned to his homeland to be groomed for presidenthood. Asma’s evolution from West London girl to Syrian First Lady could not have been speedier. When asked how soon she knew that Bashar intended to marry her, she replied: “The day before.” Since his accession to power, President Assad has been a keen advocate of women in public service, and as well as appointing two female ministers, he has also overseen 24 women legislators arrive in the 250-member parliament. Neither does he underestimate the importance of women in the private sector – no less than nine businesswomen accompanied the couple on their official trip to the UK.
These efforts to promote the role of women in Syria’s future are not going unnoticed. Leading businesswoman Khulud Halaby – who runs the franchise for DHL in Syria, the first company in the country to receive ISO certification – recognises Mrs. Assad’s contribution: “Thanks to all her support, women today have an opportunity to build a solid basis for themselves and their daughters in the business world.”
Mrs. Assad continues to exercise huge influence on both the regional and international stage, and her role is crucial in terms of the development of women at home, as well as in strengthening ties with the west. On her last official visit to Britain, she emphasised her status as First Lady of Syria by travelling under her Syrian passport, despite the fact that she holds a British one, too. “I was born in London. I spent 25 years in London,” she says. “But I’m also Syrian. I am British and I am an Arab. I am part of both worlds.” Syria could not wish for a finer ambassador.