It's now 17 months since Vogue published its cover-story paean to the first lady of Syria, "Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert." Readers were treated to a profile of Asma up close, "the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies," a dazzling paragon of understated style and philanthropic works, "on a mission to create a beacon of secularism and culture in a powder-keg region-- and to put a modern face on her husband's regime." Asma, "glamorous, young and very chic," was featured playing with her kids, whipping up home-cooked fondue with her jeans-clad husband, "the off-duty president," and urging millions of Syrian youth to engage in "active citizenship."
