Bouthaina Shaaban
بثينة شعبان
Journeys
Assad's Voice to the West: Bouthaina Shaaban's Decade of Denial
English literature professor turned chief regime apologist — Bouthaina Shaaban spent 13 years as Assad's primary media interface, denying massacres and attributing the revolution to foreign plots on Western television.
Bouthaina Shaaban: Assad's Voice to the World
Bouthaina Shaaban's story is the story of how a dictatorial regime weaponizes intellect and respectability — and how a professor of literature became one of the most consequential propagandists of the 21st century.
Biography
Bouthaina Shaaban is a Syrian academic and politician who served as political and media adviser to the presidency under Bashar al-Assad until his overthrow in 2024. Shaaban had previously served as the first Minister of Expatriates for the Syrian Arab Republic between 2002 and 2008, and was described as the Syrian government's face to the outside world at the time.