The Dictator's Wife: The gripping BBC Two Between the Covers book club pick

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Although her husband has been praised as a progressive Middle Eastern leader, his government is still a dictatorship.

Elena Ceausescu: Greatest Scientist Ever — except she was a Elena Ceausescu: Greatest Scientist Ever — except she was a

Akhras was frank about his proximity to power: his preferred opener when giving speeches was, “As the father-in-law of the president. The local security chief was a cousin of Bashar, a thug even by the standards of Syria’s secret services. Her husband, former president Zine, led an authoritarian regime, ruling with an iron fist, complemented by his wife’s mafia methods. We were told: no paper can be written or published, no conference delivered without Elena Ceausecu's name appearing in first place. The response Asma gave was surprisingly ambiguous, first welcoming the “frankness” then seeming to check herself.When Basil died in a car crash in 1994 (reportedly while racing to Damascus airport in his Mercedes), the fate of the Assad dynasty suddenly fell on Bashar’s shoulders. Sabika’s passion in women’s and children’s affairs is crowned by her participation as chief patron of the Society for Women and Children in Bahrain. The author may have used a fictious country as her setting, but the experiences and circumstances have been based on actual former Eastern Bloc countries and the people who lived there. President’s Dos Santos rule has been marred with repression and torture of ethnic minorities, mass murders, and a 27-year long civil war. But that was not enough: Elena wanted every chemical institute in the country to come under one central institute in Bucharest, with herself at the helm.

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

Her journey to supremacy over this devastated land has been a winding one, and the road is littered with her many incarnations: a J. During his reign of fear the security services ran informant networks, tapped phones and tortured people indiscriminately.The legal defence team for the former First Lady, who is on trial for a myriad of corruption charges and faces the death penalty if found guilty, includes two Yanussian expats, both of whom have been selected for the case based upon their nationality – by the former First Lady. Bashar would tell you exactly what you wanted to hear and then do absolutely nothing,” said Wafic Said. One showed her and her husband sitting on a flower-trimmed balcony with the caption: “Love is a country led by a lion who stamped out conspiracies and a First Lady devoted to her homeland”. As the Arab spring gathered pace, she’d said that the regime knew it had to change and a former associate says she tried to talk to the opposition.

Freya Berry - Watson Little

The right to public assembly became so restricted that couples had to get a government permit to hold a wedding in a hotel.

A recent report by a former employee of the American embassy in Damascus labelled Tarif Akhras, Asma’s cousin, as “one of the regime’s most prominent economic figures”. She was also keen to promote a match between Asma and Bashar, Hafez’s second son, according to Sam Dagher, author of "Assad Or We Burn the Country”. His extreme paranoia and superstition has also caused him to jail several people from his inner circle, on belief that they were plotting to overthrow him.

The Dictator’s Wife by Freya Berry | Theresa Book Review: The Dictator’s Wife by Freya Berry | Theresa

The end of Elena In only a matter of days, Elena transformed from one of the most prestigious scientists in Europe to a state criminal facing a firing squad. Huge posters of her image have been spotted in her parents’ hometown of Homs, covering entire housing blocks. On a good day she was “enormously curious” and “amazingly accommodating”, according to a former employee. Over the course of a month the regime’s response became more vicious: first goons, then snipers, then heavy artillery. He listened to Phil Collins and the Electric Light Orchestra, drank green tea and cycled around town.After dropping out of school at 14, she moved in with her brother in the capital and held a variety of jobs, many of which she lost because she lacked skills and education. It was easy for her to find scientists to publish studies and books in her name; they did not have much of a choice and were handsomely rewarded for their work. 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. Many Syrians were intoxicated by what they saw, but fear inhibited most from coming onto the streets.