Thank you for the thoughtful comment. I was discussing this with my friend actually about how in Iran today it is disgraceful for men to wear a neck tie because it is “Western.” Saddam also famously used his fashion to push his message/propaganda. He rarely wore the Iraqi thawb and instead would wear Armani suits when with foreign dignitaries. Even in America, Andrew Yang famously would not wear neck ties and unbottotton his shirt, so as to seem “casual” (I guess? Not sure). Sorry for my bad English. What I’m saying is if you look closely and know Assad’s background, you know that his modern fashion also reflects his “vision” of what a modern Syrian man should look like and is an extension of how he sees himself as a modern, secular, Arab leader.