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Rania Al-Abdullah
Queen consort of Jordan
Queen Rania - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2008
Consort	7 February 1999–present
Consort to	Abdullah II
Issue
Prince Hussein Princess Iman Princess Salma Prince Hashem
Arabic name
رانيا العبدالله
Detail Titles and styles
HM The Queen HRH The Crown Princess HRH Princess Rania of Jordan Miss Rania Al-Yassin
Royal house	Hashemite
Father	Faisal Sedki Al-Yassin
Mother	Ilham Yassin
Born	August 31, 1970 (1970-08-31) (age 38) Kuwait City, Kuwait

Rania Al Abdullah, Queen of Jordan (Arabic: رانيا العبدالله‎) (born Rania Al-Yassin on 31 August 1970), is the consort 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 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 dilapidated public schools.

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

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 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 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. he award was presented by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who said the Queen was being honored because of her "use of technology to instigate social change". The Queen accepted the award via taped message where she spoofed US comedian David Letterman by copying his Top 10 format in the humorous clip where she explained why she started her channel on YouTube. ¹¹. The Queen launched her channel in March 2008 to breakdown stereotypes about the Arab and Muslim worlds. ¹²

Queen Rania also was one of many leaders, entertainers, and activists to collaborate with Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am where she appeared on a video on YouTube as part of YouTube's In My Name campaign.¹³ 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

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Queen Rania of Jordan

• Official site
• Queen Rania on YouTube
• 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