Syria:

The 36-year-old, university educated Asma Assad is the British-born wife of Syrian President Bashar Assad. She was born to a prominent Syrian family and grew up in the affluent west London suburbs. Before the uprising that erupted in Syria last year, her image as an attractive and sophisticated woman helped boost Assad’s own as a modernizer. An article in Vogue in March, 2011, published just as protests began, hailed her as a “Rose in the Desert.” EU foreign ministers have since slapped sanctions on her, and she has been criticized for standing by Assad.

Qatar:

Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser is the most prominent of the three wives of the Emir of Qatar. The university educated Sheikha Moza has been ranked by Forbes magazine among the world’s 100 most powerful women. She is believed to have influenced policies through the Qatar Foundation, which she heads. The 52-year-old is mother of seven children. Rated in Vanity Fair’s International Best Dressed List last year, Sheikha Moza is widely known for her elegance and expensive custom-made designer clothes. While she covers her hair with a turban in line with Islamic custom, her form-hugging dresses and lavish jewels stand out among the black robes worn by many women in Gulf Arab countries.

Jordan:

Queen Rania, born to Palestinian parents in Kuwait and educated at the American University in Cairo, is mother of four children with King Abdullah II of Jordan. She is active on Twitter and has her own YouTube channel to raise awareness about education and other social issues. She has written a children’s book to promote cross-cultural dialogue. The 42-year-old is considered one of the world’s most attractive women, according to Harper’s and Queens magazine. Her Western, high-end style has landed her among the world’s best dressed women.

Egypt:

The 50-year-old, bespectacled Naglaa Ali Mahmoud, also known as Umm Ahmed, is a longtime Muslim Brotherhood member along with her husband, Egypt’s newly elected Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. She has a high school diploma and once worked in the United States as translator. The mother of five does not dress in the coiffed and polished style of Egyptian first ladies before her, instead donning a long, traditional headscarf and black abaya, or robe, worn by many women in Egypt’s impoverished villages and towns. She told The Associated Press she does not want to be called “first lady,” rather Egypt’s “first servant.”

April 3, 2012: Neslisah Sultan, or Princess Neslisah, died in Istanbul April 2, 2012 at the age of 91. Neslisah Osmanoglu, an Ottoman princess who married an Egyptian prince and was twice forced into exile when both royal households were abolished. Neslisah Sultan was born in Istanbul on Feb. 4, 1921, two years before the Turkish Republic replaced the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled Turkey, parts of the Middle East and eastern Europe for 600 years. Her grandfather, the last Ottoman Sultan Vahdettin, and all other members of the dynasty were sent into exile in 1924. The princess spent her childhood and adolescence in Nice, France, before moving to Egypt.
In 1940, Neslihan Sultan married Egyptian Prince Muhammed Abdel Monem. Prince Monem, who was born in 1899, died in Istanbul in 1979. Ottoman princesses were traditionally married to members of Muslim royal families. Prince Monem headed a regency committee that ruled from July 1952 to June 1953, when the new rulers of Egypt turned the country into a republic. The royal couple were placed under house arrest, accused of being part of an international plot against the Egyptian government of Gamal Abdel Nasser, but acquitted and forced to leave the country. Exiled for a second time, Neslisah Sultan returned to live in France with her husband.

In 1952, the Turkish government allowed members of the Ottoman family to return to Turkey, and the prince and princess moved to Istanbul in 1957. The princess took the surname Osmanoglu, or son of Osman, along with other surviving members of the dynasty. Neslisah Sultan is survived by a son, daughter and a grandson. Her nephew, Abdulhamid Kayihan Osmanoglu didn’t reveal the cause of death. The princess, was the oldest member of the Ottoman dynasty.

Historian Murat Bardakci, whose biography of the princess was published last year quotes her,”When we were in exile we lived longing for the country. “My mother had friends who would go to Istanbul. I would ask them to bring me back a bit of soil from Istanbul, but none did.” “When I go out in the streets, I see that all nice things were built by my grandfathers.” “I therefore cannot help think that they belong to me. I feel like I am a part of this place and that I belong to this land.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated, “She was the poster-child for nobleness who carried the blood of Osman, referring to Osman I, the Anatolian ruler who established the Ottoman Empire. “We remember her with high regard and our blessings.”

March 16, 2012: Imam Safwat Hejazi, a prominent Egyptian cleric issued a Fatwa calling for the assassination of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. “He who has the chance to kill Al-Assad and does not do this is a sinner,” “Hadn’t I been a known face, I would have gone myself and killed him,”  Imam Safwat Hejazi told a rally held in Cairo in support of a popular revolt against Al-Assad’s rule.

Hejazi was a prominent figure in the popular uprising against ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.  Hejazi added that his anti-Assad fatwa [religious edict] has been echoed by many Muslim clerics.

UN Human Rights officials allege some 230,000 Syrians have been displaced in the ongoing unrest, many of whom have made their way to Egypt. The London-based Observatory for Human Rights has said that a total of 9,114, have been killed since the outbreak of the uprising in the country.  The civilian death toll, they stated, stands at 6,645. UN Human Rights officials, however, have stated the civilian death toll is “at least 7,500.”

Reports of war crimes by forces loyal to Assad have become prevalent as the oppression in Syria intensifies, including sustained artillery and sniper fire on neighborhoods the government claims is “harboring terrorists.” Local residents and human rights activists have reported operations in retaken rebel strongholds include mass executions and the systemic rape and torture of survivors.

Six-members of the Gulf Cooperation Council closed their embassies in Syria. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain had previously recalled their ambassadors. Last month, Egypt recalled its ambassador for Damascus, which prompted the aforementioned to withdraw its own envoy in protest.