Asma Assad steps out of the shadows in Syria

President Bashar al-Assad's British-born wife, Asma, made a rare public appearance in Damascus on Sunday along with the couple's three children.

She attended a fund-raising event for mothers of soldiers killed in Syria's two-year civil war, the president's office announced yesterday. The conflict has so far cost an estimated 70,000 lives.

Asma, 37, who is reported to be expecting a fourth child, "took part Saturday in a charity event?…?at the Damascus Opera House on the occasion of Mother's Day," according to a statement posted by her husband's office on Facebook, the social networking site.

Her children and their cousins also took part in what appears to have been an attempt at countering mounting speculation about the imminent collapse of her husband's regime.

The event, called Mothers' Rally, was held to raise funds through the selling of crafts, the statement added.

Asma, who grew up in Acton, west London, and has a degree from King's College, is seldom seen in public. Last June, she was rumoured to have fled Syria and taken refuge in Russia. But Moscow later dismissed the reports.

Once regarded as one of the most glamorous women in the Arab world, she worked as an investment banker before marrying Assad in 2000.

She is subject to economic sanctions that limit her ability to travel within the European Union and restrict her access to certain products and material assistance. Assad's mother, Anisa, reportedly left the country in January to join her daughter, Bushra, in Dubai, according to Syrian expatriates.