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Noor has been variously criticized for being an outsider, a jet-setter or a Western woman crusading in a conservative culture. Yet she is deeply rooted in Jordan, where her bearing through the King's illness and death won millions of hearts. She knows the torch has passed to her stepson King Abdullah and her own eldest son Crown Prince Hamzah, 18, who is studying at Sandhurst and bears a striking resemblance to his late father. Abdullah's wife Rania, 28, is expected to be named queen soon, but that shouldn't be a problem: Noor shared the title with Hussein's mother Queen Zein until she died in 1994.
Indeed, all seems quiet on the palace-intrigue front. When asked what Hussein meant when the last message of his 47 years on the throne referred to "slandering and falsehoods" against Noor, she replies curtly, "I don't even want to talk about it." She was clearly maddened by rumors that she manipulated the change in succession to gain power for her son.
As Noor enumerates her projects, it is clear that she would like to continue the activist role she pioneered for Arab women. Now that she has been released from the constraints of being the wife of a reigning King, she may speak out more forcefully. Famous for angering Washington with her views supporting Palestinian rights and, at one time, urging negotiation with Saddam Hussein, she is now tempted, it seems, to enter areas of advocacy that are politically taboo in the Arab world, such as democracy and human rights. Most dear to her is the new King Hussein Foundation, which seeks to promote debate and will perhaps offer a humanitarian prize. The work, in a way, would be an extension of Hussein's drive to modernize the Arab world. Noor says she doesn't feel it's a mission she'll face alone. "On a spiritual level," she explains, "I feel we are still making the journey together."