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Queen Rania of Jordan

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Her Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan (Arabic: رانيا العبدالله) (born Rania Al-Yasin on August 31 1970), is the queen consort of King Abdullah II of Jordan.

Early life

Rania Al-Yasin 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 1995, She earned a DEA's degree in Management from the HEC University of Paris.

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

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 makes 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. In May of 2000, she was named an honorary member of Deerfield Academy's class of 2000 (her husband's alma mater).

Rania is also among the 100 most powerful women of the world (Number 80 on Forbes 100 Most powerful women of the world list)

Philanthropy

Rania Al-Yassin (now Queen Rania al-Abdullah) is renowned for her philanthropic work. Many critics, however, have pointed out that her philanthropic work is mere ostentation. It is also widely believed in Jordan that she is so obsessed with her feminine assets and that she squanders prodigious amounts of public money on her fantacies and fashionable parties. In 2003, she was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Criminal Court's Trust Fund for Victims.

Her Majesty 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.

The Queen is involved with organizations including:

References

External links



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Last updated on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 16:48:01 PDT (GMT -0700)
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