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Queen Noor of Jordan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Queen Noor (Arabic: الملكة نور) (born August 23, 1951 in Washington, D.C.) is the fourth wife and widow of the late King Hussein of Jordan.
She was born an American of Syrian, Swedish, Scottish, and English descent. She is the current president of the United World Colleges movement.
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Queen Noor was born Lisa Najeeb Halaby. She is the daughter of Najeeb Halaby, a former CEO of Pan-American World Airways, one time head of the Federal Aviation Administration, and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, and his first wife, Doris Carlquist.
She has a younger brother, Christian Halaby, a composer and guitarist, and a younger sister, Alexa Halaby (a University of Pennsylvania squash champion who was a bridesmaid at the 1986 wedding of Maria Owings Shriver and Arnold Schwarzenegger).
Queen Noor's paternal grandfather, Najeeb Elias Halaby, a Syrian immigrant, was an oil broker, according to 1920 census records. Merchant Stanley Marcus, however, recalled that in the mid-1920s, Halaby opened Halaby Galleries, a rug boutique and interior-decorating shop, at Neiman-Marcus in Dallas, Texas, and ran it with his Texas-born wife, Laura Wilkins (1889–1987, later Mrs. Urban B. Koen). Halaby died shortly afterward, and his estate was unable to continue the new enterprise.[1]
Lisa Halaby was born, raised and educated in the United States; she attended National Cathedral School from Grade 4 through Grade 8, and then went on to Concord Academy in Massachusetts. She entered Princeton University with its first co-educational freshman class, and received a B.A. in Architecture and Urban Planning in 1974.
She also attended The Chapin School in Manhattan.
Queen Noor is actively involved in a number of international organizations advancing global peace-building and conflict recovery, and advises the United Nations on these issues. She is president of the United World Colleges, Chair of the United Nations University International Leadership Academy, International Patron and Honorary Chair of Landmine Survivors Network, Advisor to Women Waging Peace, Seeds of Peace and the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Patron of the World Conservation Union, trustee of the Aspen Institute, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund International, Refugees International, a Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons and a Patron of the SOS Children's Villages - USA in Jordan[2]. Queen Noor is also on the board of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, alongside former President Bill Clinton [3]
An architect and urban planner, she met King Hussein while working in Jordan on the development of the Amman Intercontinental Airport. The couple married on June 15, 1978. In a New York Times article (May 19, 1978) about the couple's forthcoming wedding, a friend of the bride described her as "a darling, healthy, sunburned, tennis-playing, All-American girl, but she is very sophisticated. I can't see her marrying the average boy." Halaby converted to Islam, and before the marriage took place, her first name was changed from Lisa to Noor, an Arabic word meaning "light".
Queen Noor and King Hussein had four children:
- Prince Hamzah (born March 29, 1980), Crown Prince from 1999 to 2004
- Prince Hashim (born June 10, 1981)
- Princess Iman (born April 24, 1983)
- Princess Raiyah (born February 9, 1986)
As King Abdullah II's stepmother, Queen Noor cannot be classified as The Queen of Jordan, although no apparent titular distinction has been made between her and Abdullah's wife, Queen Rania. The present King's mother, however, is Princess Muna al-Hussein, an Englishwoman formerly known as Antoinette Avril Gardiner.
In the final months of King Hussein's life, Queen Noor reportedly wanted her son Prince Hamzah to be named heir to the throne but Abdullah became king instead and Hamzah became the heir presumptive. In 2004, however, Queen Noor was dealt a further blow when, in a surprise move, Prince Hamzah was stripped of his title as Jordan's next in line and it is expected that King Abdullah will eventually name his own son as heir instead. [4]
Queen Noor had initially announced plans to continue living permanently in Jordan after the King's death, but now spends most of her time in Washington, D.C. from where she works on behalf of numerous international organizations and where she makes 70 to 100 speaking appearances annually [5].
In 2003, Queen Noor published a memoir, Leap of Faith, which became a bestseller.
- ^ Stanley Marcus. Minding the Store: A Memoir, 1974, p. 39.
- ^ http://www.sos-usa.org/cgi-bin/sos/jsp/retrieve.do?site=US&hNav=show&fn=6556_noor_en&nav=6.5&cat=/654_friends_worldwide
- ^ http://www.danielpearl.org/about_us/index.html
- ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4050231.stm
- ^ http://www.arabnews.com/?page=9§ion=0&article=40698&d=6&m=3&y=2004&pix=community.jpg&category=Features"
- Queen Noor (2003) Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life, Miramax Books, ISBN 0-7868-6717-5
- Official Queen Noor website
- Transcript of a speech given at The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts in 1996
- 2002 commencement speech - Mount Holyoke College
Categories: 1951 births | Living people | American Muslims | Converts to Islam | Dames Grand Cross of the Order of St John | House of Hashim | Muslims | People from Potomac, Maryland | People from Washington, D.C. | Princeton University alumni | Queens consort | Syrian-Americans | The Hunger Project | Arab Americans