Bushra al-Assad [SEP] father
Bushra al-Assad
Bushra al-Assad () (born 24 October 1960) is the first child and only daughter of Hafez al-Assad, who was the president of Syria from 1971 to 2000. She is the sister of current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. She is the widow of Assef Shawkat, the deputy chief of staff of the Syrian Armed Forces and former head of the Syrian Military Intelligence, who was killed by the rebels on 18 July 2012.
As a result of the Syrian Civil
and after 1994, her second oldest brother, Bashar. There has been widespread speculation that had it not been for her gender, she would have been groomed for the presidency. It is reported that she helped convince her father that jailing her uncle, Rifaat al-Assad, after his failed 1984 coup attempt would disgrace the family.
Bushra received her degree in pharmacy in 1982 from Damascus University. At university Bushra befriended Bouthaina Shaaban who is now member of the Syrian Cabinet. Some sources report that it was Shaaban who