• Abdullah names son, 15, as Jordan's crown prince

  Daily Times - Found 5 hours ago Hussein, 15, whose mother Queen Rania is of Palestinian descent, would 'immediately assume the title and privileges of his post' his father... Jordan's King names son successor - New Zealand Herald Jordanian king names eldest son Hussein as crown prince - Earthtimes.org Jordan's king names son as crown prince - Arab News Jordan succession settled - Daily News South Africa Explore All

  Jerusalem Post

• Queen Rania of Jordan joins Twitter

  Telegraph - Found May. 8, 2009 Queen Rania, who describes herself on her Twitter page as a mum and a wife with a really cool day job, has long been a user of social media...

• JORDAN: Queen Rania 'tweets' her thoughts on Pope's visit

  France24 - Found May. 8, 2009 Jordan's tech-savvy Queen Rania is offering her insight on the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to her country on Twitter, the popular micro-blogging

• Jordan's king names son, 15, as crown prince

  Reuters India - Found Jul. 2, 2009 Hussein, 15, whose mother Queen Rania is of Palestinian descent, would 'immediately assume the title and privileges of his post' his father...

• Jordan king names son as crown prince

  Canada.com - Found Jul. 2, 2009 King Abdullah and his wife, Queen Rania, have two boys and two girls. A Royal decree was issued Thursday naming 15 years old Prince ... - Albawaba Prince Hussein named Crown Prince - Jordan Times Jordan king names son as crown prince - Vancouver Sun Jordan king names son as crown prince - Khaleej Times Explore All

• Jordan's king names eldest son crown prince

  Gulf News - Found Jul. 2, 2009 King Abdullah and his wife, Queen Rania, have two boys and two girls.

• Second US-Arab Cities (Mayors) Forum kicks off in Amman

  MENAFN - Found Jun. 29, 2009 Development Institute (AUDI), Sheikh Abdullah Al Ali Al Nuaim, gave the key note speech and presented H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah a plaque of...

• Ahel Al Himmeh winners honoured

  Jordan Times - Found Jun. 28, 2009 By Mohammad Ghazal AMMAN - Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania on Sunday honoured the 10 Ahel Al Himmeh winners in a ceremony at the Roman

• King and Queen in London

  Jordan Star - Found Jun. 28, 2009 Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania arrived in London on Thursday for the second leg of their European talks on the Middle East peace

• The Second US-Arab Cities (Mayors) Forum Kicks Off in Amman

  Albawaba - Found Jun. 28, 2009 Development Institute (AUDI), Sheikh Abdullah Al Ali Al Nuaim, gave the key note speech and presented H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah a plaque of...

Rania Al-Abdullah
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.

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 Amman, Jordan.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:

• Prince Hussein (born June 28, 1994)
• Princess Iman (born September 27, 1996)
• Princess Salma (born September 26, 2000)
• Prince Hashem (born January 30, 2005)

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 HRH Prince Hussein HRH Princess Iman HRH Princess Salma HRH Prince Hashem HM Queen Noor Extended royal family HRH Prince Hamzah HRH Princess Noor* HRH Princess Haya HRH Prince Hashim HRH Princess Fahdah HRH Princess Haalah HRH Princess Rayet Al Noor HRH Princess Iman HRH Princess Raiyah HRH Princess Haya HRH Prince Ali HRH Princess Rym HRH Princess Jalilah HRH Prince Abdullah Miss Abir Muhaisen HRH Princess Dina HRH Princess Alia HRH Princess Muna HRH Prince Faisal HRH Princess Alia HRH Princess Ayah HRH Prince Omar HRH Princess Sara HRH Princess Aisha HRH Princess Aisha HRH Princess Zein HRH Prince Muhammad HRH Princess Taghrid HRH Prince Talal HRH Princess Ghida HRH Prince Hussein HRH Prince Muhammad HRH Princess Rajaa HRH Prince Ghazi HRH Princess Areej HRH Princess Tasneem HRH Prince Abdullah HRH Princess Jennah HRH Prince El Hassan HRH Princess Sarvath HRH Princess Rahma HRH Princess Sumaya HRH Princess Badiya HRH Prince Rashid HRH Princess Basma HRH Prince Ali HRH Princess Reema HRH Prince Muhammad HRH Princess Sima HRH Prince Hamzah HRH Princess Rania HRH Princess Karma HRH Princess Na'afa HRH Princess Rajwa HRH Princess Basma Fatima HRH Prince Asem HRH Princess Sana HRH Princess Yasmine HRH Princess Sarah HRH Princess Salha HRH Princess Nejla HRH Prince Nayef *already part of the family but moved to reflect her now married position

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:

• Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization
• Jordan River Foundation
• Arab Women's Summit
  • National Team for Family Safety
• National Team for Early Development
• Dar Al Aman Child Safety Center (center for abused and neglected children, the first of its kind in the Middle East)
• World Economic Forum (Foundation Board member) In 2004, Queen Rania chaired the nomination committee for the newly-founded Forum of Young Global Leaders, associated with the World Economic Forum.
• United Nations Foundation
• UN Children's Fund (named the first Eminent Advocate for Children)
• International Youth Foundation
• FINCA International (Foundation for International Community Assistance; board member since 2003)
• International Osteoporosis Foundation
• Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship
• Clinton Foundation as part of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI)

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

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

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Queen Rania of Jordan

• Official site
• Queen Rania on YouTube
• Queen Rania on Twitter
• Ten Questions for Queen Rania on Time.com
• Wolf Blitzer interviews Jordan's Queen Rania, CNN, October 26, 2007
• Queen Rania on YouTube's "End Poverty - Be the Generation" video