Imelda Marcos or Marie-Antoinette, It’s all about Vanity and Cruelty
Asma’s pictures would be celebrated if all Syrians have the same opportunity the Assads have under a protective umbrella of freedom and an accountable government.
Washington DC – July 26, 2009 (RPS Staff Blog) - There is a certain discomfort one feels when one writes about or in regard to actions by the families of others, even public figures. But don’t tell that to Syrians angry at our own Marie-Antoinette. When RPS dubbed Asma al-Assad Marie-Antoinette, RPS supporters in Syria were elated because of the economic imbalance these pictures showed. Maybe Asma’s image in Europe is celebrated but inside Syria, our Marie-Antoinette has been harmed irreparably for her insensitivity when it comes to her own people.
They expressed even more joy when Claudia Rosett, a Forbes Magazine contributor and Rose Foran of the Media Line wrote on the subject and made it the newsworthy item it should be. They said to RPS spokesman over Messenger: “Very few people in Syria see Asma al-Assad anywhere. When one of her Facebook admirers pointed her pictures to us in disgust, we knew this was too much”.
Everyone knows that Baschar al-Assad is using the youth and beauty of his wife as bait and a lure for western leaders. “Look,” he is saying “We are like you. Modern, young, and educated in Britain.” What the pictures do not say is that Asma al-Assad stays in the same palace where Baschar al-Assad plans his most horrific acts of terror against western civilization and the people of Syria.
What the pictures do not tell you is how poor Syria is and how poor her people have become under a rule intent on keeping people busy pursuing their daily bread in order not to have the time and the comfort to busy themselves with politics. This is by design and Asma’s pictures have just confirmed the cruelty of this regime towards its people.
Sometime ago, Asma, in a publicity stunt, invited the Obamas to Damascus during an interview on Sky News in Britain. By inviting Michelle Obama to Damascus, Asma is hoping to show off her style and maybe her closet where her $1,500 shoes are more protected than a Syrian family in Deir-el-Zour. Unknown to the Assads, most people in the US do not really care about vanity. In fact, seeing how modestly Michelle Obama dresses, I think Asma may become more a liability to the Obamas than an asset to her dictator husband should they ever meet.
Yesterday, in one of the Pal Talk rooms Syrians frequent often, the discussion of Asma’s shoes exploded with anger according to an RPS supporter present in that room. It seems that not only in Syria but even the immigrant population of Syrians strewn all over the world, her pictures showing off personal abundance and lavish lifestyle are indeed marking her as either our Imelda or Marie-Antoinette. Either case, she is fast becoming a hated figure.
The fact that the pictures are still viewable, even with all the negative media attention, demonstrates total arrogance and disregard for what Syrians think. Why should the Assads care? They truly believe they actually own the country. Socialist Syria and Ba’athist regime are just for Syrians. Affluence and fortune are for the Assads.
Maybe critics of our work can now understand why we want freedom and democracy in Syria. All Syrians should have the same affluence and fortune to be shared by all those who can with equal opportunities and without discrimination. For the few to have and the vast majority to watch without an opportunity to have the same represents the sewer of a system the Assad family so meticulously built for Syria.
