Rania, Queen of Jordan (Arabic: رانيا العبدالله) (born Rania Al-Yassin on 31 August 1970), is the spouse of King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Biography
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 Cairo, Egypt.1
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:
Queen of Jordan
Although her husband ascended on 7 February 1999, Rania did not become Queen immediately. She was proclaimed Queen of Jordan by her husband on 22 March 1999.2 Without proclamation, she would have been a mere 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 dilapitated public schools.
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 on the Forbes 100 most powerful women of the world list.4
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:
YouTube
On March 30, 2008, she 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 August 12, 2008 (International Youth Day). She intends to respond to those questions and explain the truth about various stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims.7
She posted daily videos on subjects that including honor killings, terrorism and the rights of Arab women.8 According to the AFP, over the five month conversation, her YouTube site had more than 3 million views. 9
International personalities like Dean Obeidallah,10 Maz Jobrani and Mia Rose all contributed to creating videos for the campaign.
The video sharing website decided to honor the Queen with the first ever YouTube Visionary Award at YouTube Live on November 22, 2008. Queen Rania is getting the award because of her efforts to help prevent Muslims and Arabs from being stereotyped. 11
Queen Rania also was one of many leaders, entertainers, and activists to appear on a video on YouTube as part of YouTube's In My Name campaign.12 The video, "End Poverty - Be the Generation," urges world leaders to keep the promises they made in 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit with the Millennium Development Goals, a set of time-bound and measurable goals for combating poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women.
References
- ^ "Profile: Jordan's Queen Rania", BBC November 7, 2001.
- ^ King proclaims Rania Queen
- ^ Meet the World's Youngest Queen
- ^ The 100 Most Powerful Women:#81 Queen Rania Forbes Magazine
- ^ An in-depth look at your favourite celebrity personalities - hellomagazine.com, HELLO!
- ^ Amnesty International welcomes the election of a Board of Directors Retrieved on 1 August 2007.
- ^ Jones, Beth. "Queen Rania takes on stereotypes", BBC, July 25, 2008. Accessed October 30, 2008.
- ^ "Jordan's Queen Rania says YouTube project challenging Arab stereotypes has sparked change", Associated Press, August 11, 2008
- ^ "Jordan queen gets YouTube award for fighting stereotypes", AFP, November 13, 2008
- ^ "Queen, Comedians Use YouTube To Fight Stereotypes", Washington Post, July 31, 2008
- ^ "Queen Rania a YouTube Visionary", Variety, November 19, 2008
- ^ "Celebs launch YouTube poverty campaign at UN", The Associated Press, September 26, 2008
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