Posted Sunday, Jebruary 15, 2004; 15.48GMT
Rania's most controversial work is done behind the scenes in Amman, where she has quietly lobbied the King and leading Jordanian politicians to institute social and political reforms, many of them aimed at improving the circumstances of women. Her promptings (in addition to artful persuasion, she nominated female candidates and provided résumés of their qualifications) helped lead to an unprecedented increase last year in the number of women in Jordanian politics. Now six seats are reserved for women in the newly elected 110-seat Chamber of Deputies. The King has also appointed seven women to the 55-seat Senate and included three women in his government's 21-member cabinet. "She comes and quite articulately pushes the case," says Abdullah. "She'll say, 'I'm just reminding you, if we are going to give women more of a role, for them to feel a stronger part of society, how about trying to push the envelope?'"
There's plenty of pushing left to be done. In a series of interviews with TIME, Rania described a Middle East where many women's lives remain hobbled by inequality: unable to find jobs, confined to their homes by patriarchal tradition, and, in extreme cases, losing their lives if simply suspected of sexual transgressions. "One of the main obstacles preventing the Arab world from advancing is the exclusion of women," she says. "Sometimes people ask, 'Do you have an agenda?' Yes, I do have a gender agenda. The more you include women, the more people will get used to the fact that, yes they are capable, yes they are part of the scene."
But the same traditions that suppress Arab women also place limits on what Rania, for all her power and enthusiasm, can achieve. Many of her modernizing initiatives have been slapped down by Jordan's conservative politicians. Last year, parliament rejected proposals she supported to equalize divorce rights and increase the marrying age of girls from 15 to 18. The Queen has also been frustrated in her campaign against "honor crimes," the term for the murder of women accused of dishonoring their families with sexual misconduct. Parliament refused to repeal sections of the Jordanian penal code that allow courts to show leniency to the perpetrators — usually male relatives of the victims. Rania has also tried and failed to persuade politicians to scrap a regulation that prevents Jordanian mothers from handing down citizenship, with its crucial access to state education and medical care, to their children.
Many Jordanian conservatives resent what they see as Rania's meddling in her husband's affairs, not only because she is a woman but also because she has Palestinian roots — her father fled the West Bank town of Tulkarm in 1967. Jordan's ruling élite comprises mainly East Bank Bedouins with strong connections to the Hashemite throne. "The regime's main supporters wonder about her," says one influential businessman. "Traditional men are not impressed by intelligent women. They are thinking, 'Who is this Palestinian coming to tell us how to run the country?'" Many Jordanians still talk about the 2002 football match where East Bankers chanted a message to Abdullah: "Divorce Her! Divorce Her!" (Ironically, Palestinians complain she has not adequately supported the intifadeh against Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.)
The King hears the grumbling and is careful to point out who's in charge. "There's criticism in Amman that the Queen's calling the shots. That is not the case with Rania," he told Time. "There are boundaries she has never been able to cross." Abdullah also maintains that his wife's reformist urges mirror his own: "She is a reflection of me to some extent, and I of her." Despite that endorsement, however, Rania is "not oblivious to the problem of people perceiving her as being too influential," says an aide. "The question of being a liability is more precarious in a conservative country." As for the suspicions caused by her Palestinian origins, the Queen knows she may never be able to satisfy all of her husband's subjects: "There are certain people who will think I am not Jordanian enough," she shrugs, "and people who think I am not Palestinian enough."
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