Asma al-Assad, the glamorous British-born wife of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, told a friend that she was the “real dictator” in the family, according to leaked emails that were released by the country’s opposition last week. The correspondences suggest she has no misgivings about the regime’s brutal crackdown on its citizens, which has killed at least 8,000 people. Her emails show her to be highly supportive of her husband—on Jan. 10 she praised her his defiant speech that promised “no more messing around.” On Jan. 17 she even circulated an email cracking a joke at the expense of the people of Homs shortly before government forces laid siege on the city and killed hundreds. Goes to show that beautiful doesn’t mean classy.
