In 1999, while still in her 20s, the graduate in business administration had been thrust into a frontline role as a royal with the death of her legendary father-in-law, King Hussein. As the wife and partner of King Abdullah II, Rania, now 36, uses her position to campaign for Arab women's rights and keener Western understanding of Muslims. It's hard to say which of her self-appointed tasks is more crucial to the troubled region's future: as a role model for young Arab women or as an articulate Arab spokeswoman.
Rania is not fixated on royal pomp and ceremony, preferring seminars on social change and high-level talking shops like the World Economic Forum. She presses world leaders to fill what she calls the "hope gap," which separates children who grow up looking forward to life and those caught in poverty or conflict who don't. She perseveres even though her agenda is not always appreciated in the conservative Hashemite Kingdom. She helped win more representation for women in the Jordanian parliament, but utterly failed to see passage of legislation ensuring severe penalties for "honor crimes" when male relatives murder women who are accused of dishonoring the family through sexual misconduct.
Her Jordan River Foundation seeks to empower women through a microcredit program enabling them to start small businesses, and established the region's first shelter for abused children, too. In a Time interview two years ago, Rania said she was becoming more patient with age but would not retreat from her beliefs. "We need an honest debate to change the old traditional mind-sets and liberate women from societal constraints that hold them back," she explained.
Though Queen of an Arab dynasty, Rania is no stranger to the turmoil that has afflicted millions of ordinary Arabs. Her father is a Palestinian who fled the West Bank when Israel captured the territory in 1967. She was born in Kuwait, which the family then abandoned for Jordan after the Iraqi invasion in 1990. Such experiences molded a future activist as much as a Queen. "She doesn' t go around through the rituals," says former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who has worked with Rania on international children' s issues. "She is interested in the issues and wants to make a positive impact." Fortunately for Jordaniansand for a world eternally grappling with Middle East conflictsshe is doing just that.