Regal eagle - Cool Woman - Queen Rania of Jordan - Brief Article

Girls' Life, August-Sept, 2002

As the 31-year-old talks about world peace, one might mistake her for a beauty queen rather than actual royalty. But she is Queen Rania of Jordan, the world's youngest queen, and even as violence continues to erupt between the Israelis and Palestinians just outside her country's borders, she has hope.

"It's very important for us to be able to have a peaceful solution, a peaceful atmosphere in our part of the world," she says. Queen Rania works tirelessly to spread her message of peace to the children of Jordan...and the world. She recently joined the board of the International Youth Foundation, which ties in with businesses around the world to create programs for kids. One program is Make a Connection in which kids use video equipment donated by Nokia to create film projects about keeping peace in their communities. Queen Rania believes information technology is the way to go, and such programs are a headstart in impacting the world's youth. She also played a huge part in introducing computers to Jordan's schools. "Our vision for Jordan is a country that is modern and open and free, at the same time that it has a very strong sense of identity and culture and tradition," she says. We say, "Hail to the queen!"