In only a matter of days, Elena transformed from one of the most prestigious scientists in Europe to a state criminal facing a firing squad. On December 10th 2010, Asma addressed the assembled French elite at the International Diplomatic Academy, a think-tank in Paris, where she talked without notes about the “change that’s happening in my country”. Over the course of Ceausescu's rule, Nicolae and Elena constructed a personality cult around themselves, which in many ways paralleled those of Mao, Stalin, and Hitler. She charmed the European Union, the UN, the World Bank and Qatar, yielding millions of dollars to finance her vision. Both in Damascus and foreign capitals, Syrians openly speculate whether she harbours political ambitions to climb to the very top.

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Married to North Korea’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jon Un, Ri Sol Ju has been nicknamed the Kate Middleton of North Korea. They went ahead to have two kids when the president was still married to his first wife, with the two tying the knot after the first wife died. Faced with the threat of international sanctions and massive Lebanese demonstrations, Bashar blinked.But that was not enough: Elena wanted every chemical institute in the country to come under one central institute in Bucharest, with herself at the helm. Bashar’s mother, Anisa, had wanted her son to marry within the clan to create a long-lasting dynasty like the Sauds of Arabia. She, as well as her husband, insisted, until the very end, that her academic achievements were not only valid, but also well-earned.

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She replied, “Sometimes at night, when I look to the sky, I start thinking of you and ask myself, why? Syrian diplomats dubbed her Imelda Marcos, after the Filipina first lady with an addiction to shoes. Ten years on from the Arab spring, in which millions of people across the Middle East turned on repressive regimes, Syria’s ruling family has retained power – but at a terrible cost. Sara Nazarbayeva is a trained economics engineer, as well as chair and founder of Bobek, an international children’s charity fund. That didn’t stop her getting an honorary doctorate from the Royal Society of Chemistry; there’s a campaign at the moment to get her stripped of them.

The next day, as the world absorbed the images, photos were posted on Facebook chronicling the First Lady’s official activities in minute detail. So says the fictional Marija Popa, adapting an infamous phrase from Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines, as she prepares to stand trial for her late husband’s crimes. During his reign of fear the security services ran informant networks, tapped phones and tortured people indiscriminately. At the time, government troops in north-west Syria were battering the last pockets of rebel resistance to the regime.

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The UN gave up trying to count the war’s death toll in 2016, when it had already reached nearly half a million.American officials began to visit Damascus again, particularly after Barack Obama was elected in 2008.

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Though many of Asma’s friends distanced themselves from her years ago, they remain concerned about her well-being. Seemingly in an effort to reduce the hatred, some first ladies have undertaken noble initiatives such as charity for women and children, and advocacy for women’s rights.Syria’s second-biggest mobile-phone firm has also gone into receivership; last month Asma’s cronies were appointed to its board. Unlike his father, who retained a peasant brogue, Bashar spoke the refined lilt of the Damascene elite.