I was duped by 'first lady of hell' Asma al-Assad: Writer

The American writer behind a famously flattering Vogue profile of Asma al-Assad has described how she was "duped" by the Syrian president's wife.

Joan Juliet Buck's 3,200-word article, entitled A Rose in the Desert, was published in March 2011 and described the British-born Asma as "glamorous, young and very chic — the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies". Writing in Newsweek magazine 14 months later, the author called Asma "the first lady of hell" and outlined how "the devil and his wife" had "showed off their fantasy lives for me".

Buck said that, at the time of the interview in Syria in December 2010, fashion magazines had regarded the country as a "forbidden kingdom, full of silks, essences, palaces and ruins, run by a modern president and an attractive, young first lady".

The writer said Asma had seemed "as friendly as a new acquaintance at a friend's cocktail party" and had "sounded like the kind of young Englishwoman you'd hear having lunch at the next table at Harvey Nichols".

However, she also revealed how, on a visit to a youth centre, Asma had caused children to cry by falsely telling them that the centre was closing. Asma told her it was "just to get them out of their comfort zone".

The writer also described how, during a family fondue at the Assad residence, she asked Bashar al-Assad why he had wanted to be an eye doctor and he replied: "It's very precise, and there is very little blood."

The profile was removed from Vogue's website in the spring and editor-in-chief Anna Wintour issued a statement deploring the actions of the Assad regime.