After being criticised for its puff piece on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s wife Asma, Anna Wintour — known across the world as the final word on fashion — has come out in public and criticised the stylish First Lady. The 3,200-word profile, which was published in March 2011, carried the headline ‘A Rose in the Desert’ and described the British-born Assad as “the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies”.

Not such a desert rose: Anna Wintour has criticised Asma al-Assad and said that the atrocities in Syria are against Vogue’s principles and pulled down the article about the First Lady. pics/getty images