In the case of Asma al-Assad, the glamorous, British-born political spouse went from being called Syria’s Princess Diana to the country’s Lady Macbeth and “first lady of hell”, after ...

NPR's Scott Simons asks Economist correspondent Nicolas Pelham about Syria's first lady, Asma al-Assad, and how she has profited during the decade-long conflict in her country.

Asma al-Assad “wanted editorial control over everything — and she got it,” a source said of Syria’s ousted first lady and her cringeworthy Vogue story.

"Asma al-Assad is glamorous, young, and very chic--the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies. Her style is not the couture-and-bling dazzle of Middle Eastern power but a deliberate lack of ...