Joan Juliet Buck regrets infamous Vogue interview with Bashar al-Assad’s wife

Fashion icon Joan Juliet Buck, who is best known outside the fashion industry as the reporter who interviewed Syria’s First Lady Asma al-Assad in 2011, has said she now regrets interviewing Syria’s first lady.

Buck interviewed Asma al-Assad for American Vogue in the beginning of the Syrian uprising.

The former editor of French Vogue and close friend to Yves Saint Laurent, described Asma as “glamourous, young, and very chic” and Assad’s domain as “wildly democratic.”

Buck came under fire for her easy-going portrayal of the Aassads. She recently told The Guardian she regrets interviewing Syria’s first lady.

““I wish I had not taken the assignment, but when you’re under contract to a magazine – you accept the assignment and then you do them,” Buck said.

“I thought I would see some really interesting ruins [Palmyra] that I would never have access to otherwise in my life,” she said.
Buck also mentioned that the headline that the headline that offended so many readers – “A rose in the desert” was added after she submitted the article.