Asma al-Assad is the Queen Diana of the Orient, Die Zeit says (not)

Ooooh! Aaah! Wow! Asma al-Assad is so cool! Her Chic even outshines  Michele Obama and Carla Bruni! And she’s so unassuming, she even takes her and her awkward and stiff husband’s (that’s the president of the Syrian Arab Republic) children to the kindergarten herself! And beside her housework, she beguiles us on the national and international stage!

OK. Anyway, Germany’s weekly Die Zeit, a paper which traditionally minded its reputation as a serious news source, it absolutely beguiled. Asma al-Assad belongs to the growing circle of modern Arab first ladies who – skilled and self-confident – know how to act on the international stage (the term “stage” is used for the second time in the article here), and claim their public position at home, too, Die Zeit advises us.

Why does this picture make me think of…  [click on the picture above]

And what’s the sensation? Syria’s first lady grew up in Britain. Did Die Zeit believe that wearing a burkha and never inching outside her home without her husband is in an Arab woman’s genes?

At least they don’t refer to her as the Lady Di of Arabia. They only quote Paris Match, a gossip magazine (yes, that how a gossip columnist with Die Zeit refers to gossip magazines) as saying so. Or, rather, Queen Diana, Die Zeit says Paris Match says.

Or who says so? Die Zeit doesn’t mention the name of the article’s author.

Or was it really mohdsuak who wrote it? That’s right, the Die Zeit article is also available in English – everything you ever wanted to know about the Queen Diana of the Orient! If the link should get lost, let me know, and I’ll post the English article here in full.

So was the original in article in German or in English? Was it bulkware written by a histrionic intern writing bulk articles for a news agency? Did he or she meet Mme Assad in the real world and conduct an interview with her?

Who knows? And who cares?