With New Laws and Fatwahs Behind Them, Jordanian Women Struggle to Claim Their Rights

The high profile visibility of Jordan’s Queen Rania, who will have her own frequently updated Smarty Pants A of C Journal Page masks the challenges women face in Jordan.

WHAT BORDERS? Patrons at Sugar Daddy’s, which sells American-style cupcakes in the Middle East. Simon Milne-Day for The New York TimesIn the same Google search about women in Jordan, we have from the NYTimes American-Style Cupcakes Find a Niche in the Middle East and another article from The Media Line  Is the Women’s Cause in Jordan a Lost One?

We’re skipping the cupcakes.

A report on labor conditions in Jordan, published by the German based Friedrich Ebert Foundation, showed that at 14%, women’s participation in the labor market is one of the lowest in the region. 

Four Jordanian women serve in the cabinet of Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, and the quota for women serving in the 110-member house has increased from four to six.

Click to read more ...

The Sensually Elegant, Articulate Queen Noor

We’ve made quite a fuss on Anne of Carversville over Queen Rania. Her mother-in-law Queen Noor is equally dazzling.

8 May 1995. Queen Noor and the late King Hussein I of Jordan at a children’s party off Oxford Street commemorating 125 years of the Red Cross. The arrival of President-Elect Barack Obama and family in Washington ignites a new and exhiliarating conversation around leaders who are “mutts”, “impure” composities born of the best ideas and traits that come from living in multi-cultural environments.

Queen Noor is such a woman. She tells the story of her rich, diverse, complex background in a Pangea Day speech. The video isn’t embedded, so follow the link or photo link.

Watching her in this fresh interview with Wolf Blitzer, I’m struck by the sensual beauty of a 57-year-old woman. Of course, there’s some botox in those veins, but her natural beauty triumphs.

Islam Fundamentalists might stone her to death for her exposed, if non-revealing flesh, worn proudly and beautifully in this Wolf Blitzer interview, and even the cover of her book “Leap of Faith”.

I smile … quite certain that the neckline was just a bit lower last night. For a woman occupying a stop on the International Best-Dressed List, I love her gesture.

Click to read more ...

Queen Rania: 10 Reasons I'm on YouTube

Queen Rania in Washington DC at National Press Club’s launch of “The Big Read”We’ve followed Queen Rania’s YouTube campaign, and I’m so happy to share the news that she’s received You Tube’s first ever Visioinary Award, for using YouTube to communicate her critical message.

Here we see Queen Rania, following in the footsteps of David Letterman, doing a 10-point countdown of why she’s using YouTube to reach millions of viewers like us.

What a sense of humor and her willingness to put her message in the people’s terms, not royal ones.

Indeed, YouTube is the new medium — look how much it’s changed how I define my “writing”. The New York Times magazine is today devoted to discussing how the world of movies has changed, with the Internet and places like YouTube, making such a critical difference.

Enjoy Queen Rania. She’s the best. Like Barak Obama, she connects “differently” with people of all ages. I truly adore her and all that she stands for.

Love,                                                                                                                                                      Anne

More on Queen Rania from Anne of Carversville: