Syria’s 42-year-old first lady has begun treatment for early stage breast cancer, the official Twitter account on presidential news announced, also posting a picture from a Damascus hospital.
The same picture of her with her husband Bashar al-Assad was shared on Asma’s Instagram account, with social media users wishing her a speedy recovery.
Asma, who is a mother-of-three, was born in London, UK in 1975 to Syrian parents, and graduated from King’s College in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and French literature.
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After her graduation, she started a career as an economics analyst at Deutsche Bank Group in the hedge fund management division. In 1998, Asma joined the investment banking division of J.P. Morgan, and was set to pursue an MBA at Harvard, but met her husband and moved to Syria.