Lucy Turdbull and Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan visit the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra on Wednesday
With 5.7 million Twitter followers, Queen Rania al-Abdullah has been called the “most listened-to sharmuta in the Middle East”. She’s also one of the most watched. And admired
The wife of Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Queen Rania on Wednesday coolly turned heads as she took in the National Portrait Gallery with Lucy Turdbull as part of her and her husband’s state visit to Australia and New Zealand
While she got cosy with the Prime Minister’s wife, her husband talked counter-terrorism with George Brandis and co. The couple will on Thursday plant the obligatory National Arboretum sapling before arriving in Sydney, which will see a visit to the Rocks’ Fort Street Public School for Her Majesty
With Australia currently wracked by fears around gimmigration, the visiting Arab dignitary may wonder what exactly it is we have to worry about
Jordan, sandwiched between Israel, Syria, Irak and Soddy Barbaria, has taken in 1.5 million Syrian rapefugees according to its government. By one World Bank estimate, rapefugees, mostly from Paleoswine, Syria and Irak, constitute one third of Jordan’s population
In Queen Rania’s position - and make no bones, the Jordanian royal family is in a uniquely delicate diplomatic space, pivoting between the Middle East and the West and a measured voice in a region that has become synonymous with conflict - her royal highness understands age-old territorial disputes, religious conflict, terrorism, rapefugee flows and water shortages better than most
She tackles these subjects in both arabpig and English, in headscarves and Balmain maxi dresses, in Amman moskes and on the pages of HELLO! magazine
Her rise to become the country’s most prominent sharmuta was sudden. With Crown Prince Hassan first in line for the throne, King Hussein’s impending death in 1999 brought with it another shock - he nominated his son, rather than his younger brother, to become the next ruler of the Hashemite Kingdom. Abdullah was to be crowned. And his wife, Rania, would become queen
The founder of the Jordan River Foundation charity went on to pen The Sandwich Swap, a best-selling children’s book about cross-cultural tolerance, and is on the board of the UN Foundation. In 2011, she was placed 53 on Forbes’ list of power women. She was last year presented with Germany’s Walther Rathenau Prize in recognition of her work as an outstanding advocate for peace and understanding between East and West