Queen Noor celebrates birthday

AMMAN — Her Majesty Queen Noor on Friday will celebrate her birthday.

A trained architect/urban planner, she embraced her role as a public servant in Jordan upon her marriage to His Majesty the late King Hussein in 1978. She initiated conversation on sustainable development, actively learning about the needs of different sectors in the country, identifying challenges and gaps and introducing new development perspectives. 

These became the driving force behind initiatives to respond to emerging needs of the country, through sustainable development models, as well as through the establishment of the Noor Al Hussein Foundation in 1985, and later the King Hussein Foundation in 1999, which she chairs, according to a statement. 

Queen Noor founded the Royal Endowment for Culture and Education in 1979, which conducted the first research on the country’s specific manpower needs and awarded scholarships, with special emphasis on outstanding women, for advanced studies in fields vital to Jordan’s future development. 

In 1980, following the Arab Summit Meeting in Amman, Queen Noor called for an annual meeting of Arab young people, now known as the International Arab Youth Congress, to promote understanding, tolerance, and solidarity and communicate recommendations to policymakers and international agencies on a range of regional and global challenges.  

In 1981, the Queen brought together a diverse group of Jordanian public and private sector visionaries to launch the annual Jerash Festival for Culture and Arts, which served for almost three decades as a dynamic catalyst for the promotion of Jordanian and Arab culture and arts and cross-cultural exchange. 

In 1984, Queen Noor assumed responsibility for the implementation of an educational project to commemorate His Majesty King Hussein’s 1977 Silver Jubilee. She launched the Jubilee School, a co-educational secondary institution which opened in 1993 to develop the academic potential of outstanding scholarship students from Jordan and the region. 

To further enhance cultural initiatives for young people from different socio-economic backgrounds in Jordan, the Queen founded the National Music Conservatory in 1985. 

Also in 1986, Aqaba’s Noor Al Hussein Community Centre, as it is known today, began to offer a range of cultural, educational and social services to young women and children. The centre  today provides business incubation and business development services, and capacity building for community-based organisations and underprivileged families in southern Jordan. 

In 1991 Queen Noor launched the Relief and Rehabilitation Project to support Jordanian returnees and those displaced from the Gulf War to cope with socio-economic hardships by providing food and clothing as well as soft loans to help individuals and families initiate income-generating enterprises. 

In 1995 Queen Noor launched the National Task Force for Children to monitor and evaluate the status of Jordanian children. The task force also led coordination among multi-sector stakeholders, which culminated in the founding of the National Coalition for Children. 

Following the death of King Hussein in 1999, Queen Noor established the King Hussein Foundation to give enduring life to the late Monarch’s humanitarian vision and legacy of fostering human security and peace-building in Jordan, the Middle East and beyond. 

Also in 1999, building on its experience with revolving funds in community development projects in the early 1980s, the Noor Al Hussein Foundation launched Tamweelcom — the Jordan Micro Finance Company — to provide tailored, fast-track and responsible financing solutions to marginalised citizens and micro-entrepreneurs.  

Queen Noor has made environmental priorities an essential component of her sustainable development work to promote human security and conflict resolution. She became co-patron with King Hussein of Jordan’s Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature in 1978, the Middle East’s first environmental NGO. 

Internationally, the Queen also focuses on sustainable development, water and ocean health issues. 

She is a patron of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and has been a vocal advocate highlighting the link between environmental degradation and insecurity and conflict especially in the Middle East.

A long-time advocate for a just Arab-Israeli peace and for Palestinian refugees, Queen Noor is a board member of Refugees International and an outspoken voice for the protection of civilians in conflict and displaced persons around the world. 

Queen Noor has also focused extensively on the Balkans since her first humanitarian mission in 1996 to bring aid from Jordan to the survivors of the tragic fall of Srebrenica. She is the longest serving commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons, the leading provider of DNA-assisted identifications, and related healing and reconciliation best practices to countries worldwide dealing with natural catastrophes, human rights abuses and conflict. 

She has published two books, “Hussein of Jordan”, and “Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life”, a New York Times best seller published in 17 languages. Queen Noor has four children, Their Royal Highnesses Princes Hamzah and Hashim and Princesses Iman and Raiyah and 10 grandchildren.