Daniel Luzer wrote about the importance of the wives of dictators:

• Research indicates that for a dictator to stay in power they need three things: legitimacy, co-optation, and repression. Losing any one of them can be fatal.
• The right wife can secure legitimacy since they can act as a mother figure of the state and lead the dictator’s fan club.
• Wives can also ensure co-optation – unlike the men in power, the wives usually come from political or military backgrounds, and they can use their history to secure the support of those opposed to their regime.
• Bashar al-Assad’s wife (pictured above), for example, was an investment banker, helping to secure the support of western economies, and was often seen helping young children, shoring up support for her husband in Syria. She was fairly successful for a while.

Read about the glamorous wives of various dictators and their lifestyles over here.

Source: Pacific Standard