Page 2 of
2 A sheikha, a queen and a first
lady By Sami
Moubayed
International Criminal
Court's Trust Fund for Victims. She is also deeply
involved in the Arab Academy for Banking and
Financial Sciences (AABFS), the Jordan Cancer
Society, and the The Queen Rania Center for
Entrepreneurship.
Queen Rania adds, "While
respecting our traditions, we are determined to
build Jordan into a modern civil society and model
for the region by ensuring sustainable levels of
economic growth and social development. In
addition, I work in areas related to child
protection and family safety, women's empowerment,
the creation of opportunities for youth, and
culture and tourism. Daunting? Yes. Impossible?
No. In fact, such challenges energize me!"
Just like Moza, she sounds very proud of
being a mother - more
so perhaps, than being a queen.
"As a working mother, juggling the demands of the
job and four young children is not easy. Like all
parents, I strive to achieve the right balance. My
official activities take account of the children's
school day and their plans and programs, and
extensive periods of time on overseas engagements
are limited. Spending a couple of hours each night
with the children doing homework or reading to
them in bed gives them, and me, a sense of
security."
First Lady Assad The
First Lady of Syria is youngest of the "Big
Three", born to a Syrian family in London in 1975.
Growing up under the guidance of her father, a
cardiologist and Harley Street Consultant, she
studied computer science at King's College and
graduated with honors and a diploma in French
literature. She began her professional career as
an analyst in the Hedge Fund Management section at
Deutsche Bank.
She toured the Far East and
Europe for work, boasting of her Syrian origins,
and landed a job in 1998 at JP Morgan, London,
specializing in mergers and acquisitions. Fate
interfered at this point, cutting short her early
career, when she got married to President Bashar
al-Assad of Syria in December 2000, five months
after he had come to power in Damascus. They were
the youngest couple ever in Syrian history. The
president was 34, the First Lady was 25. Speaking
to ABC's Dianne Sawyer, Assad was asked in 2007
whether he decided to propose to her during his
medical studies in the UK. The president laughed
and replied, "We decided together. I didn't
decide, we decided."
Life had changed
considerably in Syria since the days of Zahra
al-Yusuf. Assad did not need to convince her
husband of playing a greater role in society; it
came by nature since both she and the President
were strong advocates of women's empowerment. He,
too, was something new in Syria; he drives around
in his own automobile, dines with friends, goes to
amusement parks with his children, attends
concerts and plays, and mixes easily with regular
citizens. He listens to Phil Collins and has an
iPod - as said during his interview with ABC.
Asma al-Assad was equally dazzling for
Syrians and Arabs in general. Charming,
well-spoken, and very intelligent, she toured the
world with her husband, showing what a real Syrian
woman looks like in the royal courts of London,
Morocco, and Spain, and the palaces of Istanbul
and Moscow. At home, the First Lady focused on
economic development, rural development,
micro-finance, culture, arts, ICT development, and
children with special needs.
In July 2001,
she established the Integrated Rural Development
of Syria (FIRDOS), the first rural development NGO
in Syria. The Syrian Trust for Development
followed in 2001, targeting education and culture,
and so did the Women and Education Conference,
held in Damascus. She gathered six Arab First
Ladies - Sheikha Moza and Queen Rania included -
and delegations from 22 Arab countries to
jumpstart educational reform in Syria.
That same year, she held the largest
conference ever on women in business, also in
Syria, and put full weight behind the Syrian
Businesswomen Committee in Damascus. By 2002, she
was representing Syria at economic talks with the
Bank of England, and initiating the Mobile
Information Center (MIC), targeting IT education
in rural districts of Syria. She also founded and
headed the Syrian Organization for the Disabled
(AAMAL) and the Children Discovery Center
(MASSAR).
The First Lady created the first
National Children's Fair in Syria, and in 2004,
received an honorary PhD from La Sapienza
University in Rome, in addition to nomination for
the First Arab Lady Award in 2008. Additionally,
she played a major role in preparing and planning
to host the UNESCO honor of naming Damascus as
Capital of Arab Culture for 2008, a title that
goes on to Jerusalem in 2009.
When a poll
was conducted in Damascus on the "Most popular
current or former First Lady in the Arab world",
Asma al-Assad came in with an impressively high
96%. Wherever she goes she is greeted with an
entire generation of Syrians who feel inspired by
her dedication, will, and charm.
In
addition to her work with non-governmental
organizations, which she creates, supervises, and
invests in, the Syrian First Lady has toured
Syria's underdeveloped areas bringing hope and
encouraging developmental projects. In 2007, for
example, she was the first senior Syrian to visit
the Neirab Refugee Camp near Aleppo, established
for refugees in 1948. For 59-years the Neirab Camp
has been the largest and most highly populated
refugee camp in Syria, with an estimated 89
residents per 1,000 meters and conditions that
UNRWA describes as "deplorable".
From
Neirab, she went to the Jabal al-Hoss to inspect
the United Nations Development Program programs of
rural social development. The district is
considered one of the poorest and most
underdeveloped in Syria. Assad stressed the
importance of expanding the network of small funds
in Syria to the most underdeveloped regions, in
order to improve income, and create job
opportunities.
In 2008, the First Lady
went to the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, to
attend a Syrian musical recital on the occasion of
Damascus as Capital of Arab Culture, with Queen
Sophia. She gave an interview to a Spanish news
agency saying, "I am lucky that my
responsibilities are exactly where my passion is.
My passion is to help my country develop and
realize its full potential. In so many areas, I
see as-yet untapped opportunities for Syria to
develop and prosper - that is what drives me every
day."
She continued, "If I have learned
anything in the past couple of years, it's that
for any type of development to be successful, for
it to be sustainable, it's got to include the
direct beneficiaries as a core part of the
process. They need to be actively involved. This
not only ensures local ownership, which is vital
for sustainability, but it also ensures that needs
and priorities are properly addressed and clearly
identified."
When asked about her role as
First Lady, which she was never raised to become,
Assad said, "Both roles didn't come with a guide
book or a manual you can read and implement the
next day! One of the major differences is that
most women hope to become mothers, but I doubt
that most women expect to become First Ladies!
Having said that, being First Lady is not who I
am, but rather what I do and how I influence and
support the development process in my country."
Speaking of her children, the First Lady
added, "I think what we need to do as parents, one
thing I try to do as a mother, whether my children
are writing, playing sports, playing music or a
computer game - is to do everything possible to
help them fall in love with what they're doing. So
focusing less on how successful they were (or are
likely to be) and show more interest in the task
itself. That's just another way of saying we need
to encourage more, judge less and love always."
Sami Moubayed is a Syrian
political analyst.
(Copyright 2008
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