Over the course of Ceausescu's rule, Nicolae and Elena constructed a personality cult around themselves, which in many ways paralleled those of Mao, Stalin, and Hitler. This cult positioned Elena as the doyen of the European scientific community and as an academic powerhouse whose publications and international recognition were the result of sustained hard work. In February 2012, a year into the Arab spring, Syria’s Fourth Armoured Division, under the command of Bashar’s younger brother, Maher, trained its artillery on Homs in western Syria. Asma’s parents had grown up in the city; now protests there were escalating into armed insurrection. Soldiers defected to the rebels and some 7,000 civilians had already died across the country. Ooh lovely review, you’ve definitely persuaded me to add this one to my list! The two different perspectives sound fascinating and I love unreliable narrators too 📚❤️ X x x It’s hard to compute the scale of destruction in Syria over the years that followed. In 2014 Islamic State, a Sunni extremist group, took advantage of the chaos to establish a so-called caliphate straddling Syria and Iraq. Its sectarian ferocity presented a serious threat to Bashar’s forces but also weakened support for his opposition and justified Iran and Russia in propping him up.

Velvet gloves to iron fists: how complicit are the wives of

Bashar had never needed his allies more: his British wife might help placate Western governments. He promised Asma that he would muzzle the in-laws and agreed to designate her “First Lady” (Syria’s state media started using the term only after Anisa died in 2016). Asma had finally won a seat at the table. Asma’s next project was Syria itself. After the decades of central planning and import restrictions, she wanted to rejuvenate Syria. Asma blinded her husband with financial jargon and pushed for the banking sector to open up to private and foreign-run companies. “She wanted to turn Damascus into a regional Dubai, a tax-haven free from financial controls,” recalled a well-connected Syrian economist. It was really fascinating. I liked how she used a fictional country but based historical events within it. Very clever! The petitions were turned down and Elena had to settle for an honorary degree from the Central London Polytechnic and an honorary fellowship from the Royal Institute of Chemistry. According to Behr, the chancellor of London University, Professor Sir Philip Norman, publicly praised Elena's work, despite the fact that she never wrote a single word of any of her publications. Almost every inch of the country was fought over. Though Bashar recaptured Aleppo, the last of the big cities, in 2016, he kept on dropping bombs: nearly half of Syria’s towns and cities have been reduced to rubble. The UN gave up trying to count the war’s death toll in 2016, when it had already reached nearly half a million. More than 10m Syrians are refugees.In 1975, she was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa at both the University of Tehran and Jordan University in Amman. Later, the University of Manila awarded Elena with an honorary doctorate thanks to a large donation that the Ceausescus made during a trip to the Philippines. Elena never admitted to any research malpractice and insisted that institutions really wanted to grant her recognition for her scholarly work.

Banker, princess, warlord: the many lives of Asma Assad Banker, princess, warlord: the many lives of Asma Assad

For the most part, Western diplomats in Damascus gladly supported Asma’s trust. She charmed the European Union, the UN, the World Bank and Qatar, yielding millions of dollars to finance her vision. A flurry of newspaper articles celebrated Damascus’s “cultural renaissance”, as Asma called it. “This is how you fight extremism – through art,” Bashar said. If you think that people who deliberately engage in dubious scientific practices like plagiarism, falsification of results, or attendance at fake conferences represent the worst of scientific misconduct—then you have clearly never heard of Elena Ceausescu. The charm offensive worked. Just months after Hariri’s assassination, the New York Times asked whether they represented “the essence of secular Western-Arab fusion”. “I was enchanted,” says a Syrian diplomat now in exile, who organised a European tour for the pair. “She’s lovable the moment you meet her. He’s different to other dictators in the Middle East. He looks modern and sophisticated. That’s what makes him so dangerous.”

As head of the Syria Trust, Asma gained more than just wealth. Funnelling UN aid, she developed a vast network of patronage that included Syrian warlords. People reportedly showed gratitude for her protection and benevolence in the form of suitcases full of cash delivered to organisations she was associated with. This was a pivotal moment for the couple. Until now Asma, the foreign wife, had been relegated to the sidelines. Now she came to play a central role in Bashar’s international rehabilitation. “She was his ambassador to all the countries with whom he couldn’t mingle and mix,” says Abdel Nour, Bashar’s former adviser. Elena's PhD in chemistry was based on a thesis defense that never occurred. Indeed, there was nothing to present.