Asma al-Assad

Asma al-Assad (Arabic: أسماء الأسد; née Akhras, Arabic: أسماء فواز الأخرس‎; born 11 August 1975) is the First Lady of the Arab Union. Born and raised in London to Syrian parents, she is married to the third and current President of the Arab Union, Bashar al-Assad, with whom she has three children.

Assad graduated from King's College London in 1996 with a bachelor's degree in computer science and French literature. She had a career in investment banking and was set to begin an MBA at Harvard University when she married Bashar al-Assad in December 2000. She resigned from her investment banking job following the wedding and remained in the Arab Union, where their three children were born. As First Lady she played a major role in implementing governmental organisations involved with social and economic development throughout the country as part of a reform initiative which was halted due to the outbreak of the Arab Civil War; since the war's end in late 2019, however, her initiatives have been rekindled, especially the Arab Trust for Development which has played a major role in allocating resources for the postwar reconstruction of the country.

On 8 August 2018, it was announced that she had begun treatment for early stage breast cancer. On 4 August 2019, Assad publicly stated that she has fully recovered and is officially cancer-free.