Queen Rania of Jordan

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Rania Al-Abdullah
Queen Rania in the Yellow Oval Room in the White House Residence.
Queen Rania in the Yellow Oval Room in the White House Residence.
Queen consort of Jordan
Tenure 7 February 1999 – present
Proclamation 22 March 1999
Spouse Abdullah II of Jordan
Issue
Prince Hussein
Princess Iman
Princess Salma
Prince Hashem
House Hashemite
Father Faisal Sedki Al-Yassin
Mother Ilham Yassin
Born August 31, 1970 (1970-08-31) (age 38)
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Religion Sunni Muslim

Queen Rania of Jordan (Arabic: رانيا العبدالله‎) (born Rania al Yassin on August 31, 1970), is the wife of King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Rania Al-Yassin was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents from Tulkarm. She attended primary and secondary school at New English School in Kuwait, then earned a degree in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo. After her graduation in 1991, Queen Rania worked at Citibank and Apple Computer in Amman, Jordan.[1]

[edit] Marriage and children

She met Jordanian King Abdullah bin Al-Hussein, then Prince, at a dinner party in January 1993. Two months later, they announced their engagement and on June 10, 1993, they were married. They have four children:

[edit] Queen of Jordan

Although her husband ascended on February 7, 1999, Rania did not become Queen immediately. She was proclaimed Queen of Jordan by her husband on March 22, 1999.[2] Without proclamation, she would have been a princess consort, just like her mother-in-law, Princess Muna al-Hussein.

Queen Rania has pushed for more rights for women and children in the region and in the world as a whole. She set up the Madrasati initiative aimed at renovating Jordan's most dilapidated public schools and installing new computers.

Queen Rania has launched a "war on child abuse" after a story emerged of the brutal death of a child in Amman, Jordan. She is also an outspoken critic of honour killings.

Queen Rania speaking to Columbia University president Lee Bollinger at the 2008 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland

Queen Rania has been an outspoken advocate of women's rights. She was awarded the honorary rank of colonel in the Jordanian Armed Forces by her husband, King Abdullah, on June 9, 2004.

She was named the third most beautiful woman in the world in the 2005 top 100 of Harpers & Queen magazine. In addition, she was the youngest queen in the world at the time King Abdullah succeeded to the throne. She has made many public appearances, including a half-hour television interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show on May 17, 2006, where she spoke about misconceptions about Islam and women's role in Islam.[3] In May 2000, she was named an honorary member of Deerfield Academy's class of 2000 (her husband's alma mater).

Queen Rania was ranked 81st in the Forbes 2005 100 most powerful women of the world list.[4]

In 2008, she was awarded the North-South Prize of the Council of Europe.

Royal Family of Jordan

HM The King
HM The Queen

Extended royal family

[edit] Philanthropy

Queen Rania is renowned for her philanthropic work. She has pushed for education reform, fighting for better school facilities and mandatory English language training. She is also an enthusiastic supporter of the micro-fund movement which provides financial assistance to would-be entrepreneurs.[5] In 2003, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims.[6]

She has travelled to a great number of countries in representation of Jordan and to contribute to worldwide causes. Some of these are the United States, India, Kuwait, France, South Africa, Greece, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Morocco, Italy, The Vatican.

Queen Rania is involved with organizations including:

[edit] YouTube

On 30 March 2008, Queen Rania launched her own channel on YouTube with a video in which she asked people to send her their questions about Islam and the Arab world until 12 August 2008 (International Youth Day).[7] She provided responses to those questions and explained the truth about various Arab and Muslim stereotypes. Over five months she posted daily videos on subjects that included honor killings, terrorism and the rights of Arab women.[8] International personalities such as Dean Obeidallah,[9] Maz Jobrani,[10] and Mia Rose also contributed videos to the campaign.[11] As of November 2008, Queen Rania's YouTube channel had been viewed by three million people.[12]

Queen Rania was honored with the inaugural YouTube Visionary Award at YouTube Live on 22 November 2008 in recognition for her use of the video-sharing website as a platform for positive social change.[12] She accepted the award via a taped message in which she spoofed the Top Ten List segment from the American television show Late Show with David Letterman.[13]

In 2008, Queen Rania also participated in YouTube's In My Name campaign. She appeared alongside Black Eyed Peas member will.i.am in the video, "End Poverty - Be the Generation," which urged world leaders to keep the promises they made in 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit.[14]

[edit] Twitter

In 2009, she confirmed her reputation as one of the most modern of royals when she used the microblogging website Twitter to announce the Pope's arrival on Friday, May 8, 2009.[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Profile: Jordan's Queen Rania", BBC November 7, 2001.
  2. ^ King proclaims Rania Queen
  3. ^ Meet the World's Youngest Queen
  4. ^ The 100 Most Powerful Women:#81 Queen Rania Forbes Magazine
  5. ^ An in-depth look at your favourite celebrity personalities - hellomagazine.com, HELLO!
  6. ^ Amnesty International welcomes the election of a Board of Directors Retrieved on 1 August 2007.
  7. ^ Jones, Beth. "Queen Rania takes on stereotypes". BBC. 25 July 2008. Retrieved 30 October 2008.
  8. ^ Gavlack, Dale. "Jordan queen wraps up YouTube plan on stereotypes". The Guardian. 11 August 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2009.
  9. ^ Salama, Vivian. "Queen, Comedians Use YouTube To Fight Stereotypes". The Washington Post. 31 July 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2009.
  10. ^ Coach, Christina. "Blowing up: Maz Jobrani pokes dangerous fun at Middle Eastern stereotypes". Time Out Chicago. February 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2009.
  11. ^ "Queen Rania highlights importance of moderation and understanding". The Jordan Times. 17 March 2009. Retrieved 14 April 2009.
  12. ^ a b "Jordan queen gets YouTube award for fighting stereotypes". Associated Press. 13 November 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2009.
  13. ^ "YouTube honours Jordan's Queen". The Globe and Mail. 25 November 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2009.
  14. ^ Flumenbaum, David. "Celebrities Join YouTube at UN to Launch Poverty Campaign". The Huffington Post. 26 September 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2009.
  15. ^ Queen of tweets: Jordan's Rania announces Pope's arrival on Twitter

[edit] External links

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Queen Rania of Jordan
Born: 31 August 1970
Royal titles
Preceded by
Noor al-Hussein		 Queen consort of Jordan
22 March 1999 - present		 Incumbent
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Rania_of_Jordan"
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