Asma Assad is Pumped

A daily stream of photos showing Assad’s atrocities against his own people is one thing. As blasphemous, perhaps, are images of domestic indulgence, items of vanity that reveal the bubble the Assad’s have been swimming around in as the blood flows in the streets.

Those domestic items acquired by Syria’s first couple — revealed in allegedly authentic, purloined emails — are indeed galling. (My bad for not knowing of the existence of bulletproof L.L. Bean-style casual wear!)  The design of this £945 pair of shoes that Asma purchased, however – the same brand and style above published by the Guardian — is, given the political circumstances, truly out there. I guess metal spikes or the steel toe is all the rage in Syria’s upper echelon these days.

In a media sphere overly enamored with power, attraction, youth and good grooming, Bashar’s wife, the London-born former hedge fund and investment banker, has been an object of fascination. Beyond the shockingly fawning portrait of the “Rose of the Desert” published, then erased by Vogue magazine (recovered here) just as the Arab Spring was heating up, there was this confusing piece in the Daily Beast the other day, replete with a illustrated portrait, suggesting that poor Mrs. Assad — theatrically labeled “the good wife” — might just be a victim in all this.

My question is: If that’s somehow true and the country is liberated, do you think she would consider returning the shoes?

UPDATE: I am actually curious how the readership interprets the design of these shoes as well as imagines what the fascination is/was.

UPDATE 2: Just looked up the product description for the $1,595 Christian Louboutin Asteroid 140’s, which strikes me as ghastly, referring to “daring gunmetal spikes and eye catching crystals.”

via Guardian slideshow: Bashar and Asma al-Assad’s shopping – in pictures

(photo: Christian Louboutin caption: Christian Louboutin Asteroid 140 suede and patent-leather pumps, £945)