Bushra al-Assad is the first child and only daughter of Hafez al-Assad

Hafez al-Assad

Hafez ibn 'Ali ibn Sulayman al-Assad or more commonly Hafez al-Assad was the President of Syria for three decades. Assad's rule consolidated the power of the central government after decades of coups and counter-coups, such as Operation Wappen in 1957 conducted by the Eisenhower administration and...

, who was the president of Syria

Syria

Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

 from 1971 to 2000. She is the sister of current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

Bashar al-Assad

Bashar al-Assad is the President of Syria and Regional Secretary of the Ba'ath Party. His father Hafez al-Assad ruled Syria for 29 years until his death in 2000. Al-Assad was elected in 2000, re-elected in 2007, unopposed each time.- Early Life :...

. She is married to Assef Shawqat

Assef Shawqat

General Assef Shawkat is the deputy Minister of Defense of Syria since September 2011. He is married to Bashar Assad's sister Bushra and is from the Sunni sect. He previously served as the army's deputy chief of staff from July 2009 to September 2011. He then bypassed the position of chief of...

, the deputy chief of staff of the Syrian Armed Forces and former head of the Syrian Military Intelligence.

Bushra is reported to have enjoyed a close relationship with her father Hafez al-Assad. It is reported that she helped convince her father that jailing her uncle, Rifaat al-Assad

Rifaat al-Assad

Rifaat al-Assad is the younger brother of the former President of Syria, Hafez al-Assad, and the uncle of the current President Bashar al-Assad, all of whom come from the minority Alawite Muslim sect. He was born in the village of Qardaha, near Lattakia in western Syria. He is perhaps best known...

, after his failed 1984 coup attempt would disgrace the family.

Bushra received her degree in pharmacy in 1982 from Damascus University.