Video urges Asma Assad, Syrian President Bashar Assad’s wife, to end violence

The wives of two European nations’ ambassadors to the United Nations have released a video asking Asma al-Assad, wife of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, to intervene and end the violence in the Middle Eastern nation.

Huberta von Voss Wittig and Sheila Lyall Grant, wives of Germany’s and the United Kingdom’s U.N. ambassadors, released a video letter on YouTube and started a petition on Change.org, seeking to get Asma Assad to “stop being a bystander,” “stop worrying about your image,” and take action to stop the violent killing and repression of Syrian civilians.

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Asma Assad was born and educated in the U.K. and had British citizenship. According to ABC News, she’s come under harsh criticism for her lavish lifestyle while her country has toiled under violent attacks.

“We strongly believe in Asma’s responsibility as a woman, as a wife and as a mother,” Wittig and Grant wrote in a statement released along with the video. “As the vocal female Arab leader that she used to be, as a champion of female equality, she cannot hide behind her husband.”

In February, Asma Assad, in an email to The Times of London, said that she was standing by her husband as her served as “the President of Syria, not a faction of Syrians.”