Syrian President Bashar Assad's Wife Diagnosed With Breast Cancer

The official account for the Presidency of the Syrian Arab Republic announced on August 8 that Bashar al-Assad’s wife Asma has been diagnosed with a malignant breast tumor.

Syria’s 42-year-old first lady has begun treatment for early stage breast cancer, the official Twitter account on presidential news announced, also posting a picture from a Damascus hospital.

بقوة وثقة وإيمان.. السيدة #أسماء_الأسد تبدأ المرحلة الأولية لعلاج ورم خبيث بالثدي اكتشف مبكرا..

من القلب.. رئاسة الجمهورية والفريق العامل فيها يتمنون للسيدة أسماء الشفاء العاجل.. pic.twitter.com/W3vi9h1GUt

— Syrian Presidency (@Presidency_Sy) 8 августа 2018 г.

The same picture of her with her husband Bashar al-Assad was shared on Asma’s Instagram account, with social media users wishing her a speedy recovery.

بقوة وثقة وإيمان.. السيدة الأولى #أسماء_الأسد تبدأ المرحلة الأولية لعلاج ورم خبيث بالثدي اكتشف مبكرا.. من القلب.. رئاسة الجمهورية والفريق العامل فيها يتمنون للسيدة أسماء الشفاء العاجل.. نقلا عن الصفحة الرسمية لرئاسة الجمهورية

Публикация от The First Lady Asma al Assad (@asmaalassad) 8 Авг 2018 в 5:35 PDT

Asma, who is a mother-of-three, was born in London, UK in 1975 to Syrian parents, and graduated from King’s College in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and French literature.

READ MORE: UK Parliament Members Call for Stripping Assad's Wife Asma of UK Citizenship

After her graduation, she started a career as an economics analyst at Deutsche Bank Group in the hedge fund management division. In 1998, Asma joined the investment banking division of J.P. Morgan, and was set to pursue an MBA at Harvard, but met her husband and moved to Syria.