Queen Rania is the elegant wife of King Abdullah II of Jordan that is known for her numerous humanitarian work as she divides her time between carrying out official duties of the throne and other interests that look to make a difference. She has done a lot of advocacy work in areas of health and education and has continuously pushed for cross-cultural and interfaith dialogue to enable greater understanding and acceptance of people around the world.
The 2008 recipient of the David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award, who would have remained princess consort if her husband did not proclaim her queen on the 22nd of March, 1999, is also an accomplished author. She has published a total of four children’s books, most famously The New York Times bestseller, The Sandwich Swap.
Early Life
Queen Rania was born Rania Al-Yassin on the 31st of August, 1970 in Kuwait City, Kuwait to her Palestinian parents; Faisal Sedki Al-Yassin who worked as a physician and Ilham Yassin, a homemaker. Along with her siblings, she was raised in Tulkram where she attended the New English School in Kuwait City. She later attended the American University in Cairo, Egypt to study Business Administration, graduating in 1991.
After school, Rania reunited with her family in Amman, Jordan where they had fled to from Kuwait to avoid the ongoing Gulf War. Her first job was in the marketing department at Citibank after which she joined Apple Inc. It was during this period that she met and married her husband, which gave way for her to pursue interests that she held close to her heart.
One of her very first achievements was the establishment of the non-profit organizations Jordan River Foundation (JRF) and the Jordan River Children Program (JRCP) in 1995. Her distinguished work to help children led to her being invited to join the Global Leadership Initiative by UNICEF in 2000.
In the early 2000s, she joined the Board of Directors of the International Youth Foundation (IYF), the World Economic Forum (WEF), and the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA) through which she does a lot of advocacy work both in Jordan and elsewhere. She set up Jordan’s first interactive children’s museum and the Queen Rania Award for Excellence in Education which recognizes teachers in the country.
Queen Rania’s Children
Queen Rania married her husband, who at the time of their wedding in 1993, was not a Crown Prince, after having reportedly only known him for just a few months. The pair met at a dinner organized by his sister Princess Aisha in January 1993 and immediately hit it off. They began dating and after two months, announced their engagement. They went on to exchange vows in June 1993 at a lavish ceremony.
She has four children; two boys and two girls. Her first child is Crown Prince Hussein, the heir apparent of King Abdullah II of Jordan, born on the 28th of June, 1994. After him, she gave birth to Princess Iman on the 27th of September, 1996 and then to Princess Salma, four years later, on the 26th of September, 2000. On the 30th of January, 2005, the birthdate of her husband, she had her fourth and final child, Prince Hashem, who is second in line to the Jordanian throne.
Read Also: Queen Elizabeth II – A Look Into Her Huge Family
Height, Weight, and Other Facts
Queen Rania is quite tall at a height of 5 feet 6 inches (1.67 m). This puts her 2 inches taller than the average woman around the world and 4 inches more than the average Jordanian woman, making a pleasant combination when she is pictured beside her husband as she is one of the most photographed women in the world.
She further weighs about 53kg (117 lbs) which she maintains by following a strict glycemic index diet that measures carbohydrate intake as well as through exercise, specifically running. She is a self-described “seeker of good jogging tunes,” a testament to her love for keeping fit.
She is an avid social media user with active pages on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. As of the time of this writing, Queen Rania has over 10 million followers on Twitter and over 16 million likes on Facebook. On her YouTube channel, Queen Rania promotes dialogue between people of different religions and talks about other sensitive issues such as honor killings.
