Bushra al-Assad (Arabic: بُشْرَى ٱلْأَسَدِ, romanized: Bušrā al-ʾAsad; born 24 October 1960) is the first child and only daughter of Hafez al-Assad, who was the president of Syria from 1971 to 2000. She is the sister of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. She is the widow of Assef Shawkat, the deputy chief of staff of the Syrian Armed Forces and former head of the Syrian Military Intelligence, who was killed in the 18 July 2012 explosion in Damascus, responsibility for which was claimed by a coalition of Syrian opposition rebel groups. As a result of the Syrian Civil War, in March 2012 she was placed on a list of Syrian government figures who were subject to European Union economic sanctions and travel bans. On 28 September 2012, it was reported that Bushra al-Assad had fled from Syria with her five children to seek refuge in the United Arab Emirates. In January 2013, Bushra al-Assad was joined by her mother Anisa Makhlouf in Dubai. Source: Wikipedia (en)