Queen Rania still in shadows as Jordan plays waiting game
Queen Rania has scaled back her public activities sharply since facing damaging criticism last year that she was playing too prominent a role in running Jordan.
Rania, now 41, married Prince Abdullah in 1993, six years before he ascended the throne. Stylish and tall, in 2005 she was voted the third most beautiful woman in the world and hailed by Oprah Winfrey as an "international fashion icon" who also speaks up for women's rights.
On her Twitter account, followed by more than two million people, she describes herself as "a mum and a wife with a really cool day job".
In the past, Jordan's carefully-controlled media would report on two or three different royal appearances a day. Now the queen is mentioned less frequently, typically visiting a school or hospital or programmes for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Plans for the creation of a Queen Rania Foundation – modelled on one run by Sheikha Mozah, the glamorous consort of the emir of Qatar – have been quietly shelved.
Rania was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents who became refugees in 1948 when Israel was created. Her Palestinian identity – always a sensitive issue in Jordan – has been exploited by the king's critics among the East Bank tribes.
According to sources in Amman, the previous head of the Mukhabarat secret police told the queen she needed to lower her profile for the good of the monarchy.
It is rumoured that a journalist who published negative stories about her was on the Mukhabarat payroll. A claim that she was helping Palestinians acquire Jordanian citizenship was especially damaging.
Stories about her taste for designer clothes and hobnobbing with celebrities such as Bono have appeared in foreign but not the Jordanian media.
In August 2010, there was anger when she hosted a lavish birthday party in Wadi Rum attended by 600 guests who were flown in from all over the world. But the palace defended it as a "modest" affair.
The royal couple have four children. The oldest is Hussein, 17, the heir to the throne. Hussein replaced his father's half-brother Hamza, son of the late King Hussein and his American-born-wife, Queen Noor.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/11/queen-rania-jordan-waiting-game