Bushra al-Assad
Bushra al-Assad ( Arabic بشرى الأسد; * October 24, 1960 ) is the second child and the only daughter of the Syrian President Hafiz al-Assad, who died in 2000, and his wife Anisa Machluf . Her brother, five years her junior, is incumbent President Bashar al-Assad . She is the widow of Asif Schaukat , the former head of Syrian military intelligence , who was killed in an attack on July 18, 2012.
Childhood, youth and education
Bushra al-Assad was born as the second daughter of the al-Assad couple. The first child, also a daughter named Buschra, had previously died as an infant . Over the years four male siblings were added, Basil , Baschar, Mahir and Majed, who was mentally retarded and died in December 2009 after a long illness.
Buschra developed a close bond with her father, whom she is considered to be similar in character. She is described as a woman of "iron determination" and "romantic" as well as "assertive" and "dominant". Her extraordinary intelligence is also mentioned, which is said to exceed that of all four brothers.
In 1982 she graduated from Damascus University with a degree in pharmacy .
Relationship with Asif Schaukat
In the late 1980s, Bushra met the divorced army officer Asif Schaukat, who already had five children and was reputed to be a womanizer . A violent love affair developed between the two of them, which was not particularly well received by her father and her eldest brother Basil. Basil had Schaukat locked up a total of three times, which, from the couple's point of view, gave the love even more depth.
After Basil's death in a car accident in 1994, Buschra finally got her father married to Schaukat and married him in early 1995, although this was not mentioned in the state media. However, Schaukat quickly demonstrated his skills and rose quickly within the military intelligence service. At the same time, Bushra pushed ahead with reforms in the pharmaceutical sector, thereby making Syria largely self-sufficient in terms of the manufacture of medicines.
Influence on Syrian politics
In the years after 1994, when Hafiz al-Assad's health deteriorated significantly and his death was looming, Bushra repeatedly demonstrated her skills as a puller . She established a friendship between Shaukat and Bashar, her father's designated successor as head of state. The rivalry between her brother Mahir and Schaukat, which escalated in October 1999 to such an extent that Mahir Schaukat shot him in the stomach during an argument, contained them and enforced a kind of truce. She was also able to persuade her father to give Schaukat extensive powers in military intelligence.
After her father's death in 2000, she once again ensured that Shaukat was given important management positions, probably also to support the politically inexperienced Bashar in securing the political dominance of the al-Assad family. In 2005 she saved Schaukat from having to testify as part of the UN investigation into the murder of Rafiq al-Hariri .
In the relationship between Shaukat and Mahir, Buschra has shown her extraordinary talent for negotiation and, through her persistence, induced the two to come to a friendly reconciliation. However, since Bashar's marriage at the end of 2000, Buschra had competition from his wife Asma al-Assad . Bushra, who has always adhered to the code of public invisibility of women in the al-Assad family, apparently does not agree with Asma's large public presence and social commitment. Controversy also arose over the use of the title " First Lady ", which Bushra claimed for her mother Anisa . Anisa's first public appearance since her husband's death at the opening of the Arab Women's Union's permanent office in April 2006 appears to be related to this dispute.
Because of their influence and their reputation as rulers in the background, Bushra al-Assad and Asif Shaukat were often referred to as the “royal couple” in the Syrian population.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Mohamad Daoud: Dossier: Bushra Assad. In: Mideast Monitor. October 2006, archived from the original on March 22, 2012 ; Retrieved April 2, 2011 .
- ↑ a b c Shmuel Bar: Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview In: Comparative Strategy, 25, 2006, Special Issue, p. 379.
- ↑ SANA: Bashar al-Assad's Youngest Brother Dead. In: iloubnan.info. December 12, 2010, archived from the original on October 6, 2011 ; Retrieved April 3, 2011 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Assad, Bushra al- |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Assad, Bouchra el- |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Syrian president's daughter and political mastermind |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 24, 1960 |