La moglie del dittatore. Questa signora, Asma al-Assad, è per me il personaggio più enigmatico dell'intera vicenda araba.

I thought of Syrians I had met who spent years in prison for opposing Hafez al-Assad, of the stories of torture I had heard. I thought of accusations of murderous policies pursued under Bashar al-Assad, of corruption among his relatives. It made for a jarring juxtaposition with this earnest talk of bureaucratic reform. You grew up in a capitalist democracy, I said at last. Didn’t Syria seem kind of crazy to you when you moved here?

“Um,” she said, momentarily searching. When she began again, she spoke more slowly. “It’s a process. And I know. I’ve seen the end of the process, if you like, and we are moving toward that objective.”