Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s British-born wife, Asma, who recovered from breast cancer in 2019, has been diagnosed with leukemia, the president’s office said on Tuesday.
She will undergo a “specialized treatment protocol” that requires social distancing to avoid infection, the statement said, adding that she will “temporarily withdraw from all direct engagements as part of her treatment plan.”
In 2019, Syria’s first lady had said she was “totally” free of breast cancer after battling the disease for a year.
Born in Britain in 1975, the former investment banker styled herself as a progressive rights advocate and the modern side of the Assad dynasty before the eruption of the country’s brutal civil war in 2011, after which plaudits turned to condemnation over her support for her husband’s crushing of pro-democracy protests.
With AFP
