The Dictator’s Wife in Louboutin Shoes Featured in Vogue Magazine In March 2011, Vogue magazine ran a 3,000-word story, complete with full-page color photographs of Syria’s first lady, Asma al-Assad, wife of Syria’s leader, Bashar al-Assad. Vogue writer Joan Juliet referred to Mrs. Assad as “glamorous, young, and very chic,” the “freshest and most magnetic of first ladies,” and ogled over the “flash of red soles” on her shoes (the trademark of Christian Louboutin $800–$1,200 shoes). Mrs. Assad described her role as one of convincing 6 million Syrians “under eighteen ... to engage in ‘active citizenship.’ ”161 The timing of fashion trends may have been slightly off because the “eastern Diana’s” husband began a crackdown on the rebellious Syrians who reached a breaking point on tyranny with their realization that 20,000 Syrians have been killed in the civil war in Hama.162 The result of their rebellion has been a bloody crackdown by Mr. Assad and the killing of 9,000 Syrians, the threat of the use of weapons of mass destruction, and a well-documented shopping spree by Mrs. Assad as the rebellion rages on. Within weeks, the 3,200 words were pulled from Vogue’s website. The only copy available on the Internet (“A Rose in the Desert”) is on a website called President Assad.com and that is dedicated to presenting flattering information about the President and his family.163 One of the more ironic quotes in the article is: “The household is run on wildly democratic principles. ‘We all vote on what we want, and where,’ she [Mrs. Assad] says. The chandelier over the dining table is made of cut-up comic books. ‘They outvoted us three to two on that.’”164 Ms. Buck, the author of the article, said in an inter- view with NPR she was “horrified” to be near the Assads and suspected that the children were not their real children but plants used for security purposes.165 Her biggest regret was the title of the article, which she assured she had nothing to do with, “A Rose in the Desert.” The United Nations released a video in 2012 pleading with Mrs. Assad to end the bloodshed in Syria with pictures of dead and injured Syrian children.
1. Who were the stakeholders in Vogue’s decision to run the flattering profile?
2. Through a spokesperson, Vogue editor Anna Wintour defended the decision to publish the piece as “a way of opening a window into this world a little bit.”166 Did the article serve that function?
3. Why was the story scrubbed from the Internet following the outbreak of the rebellion in Syria?