Queen Rania of Jordan on Oprah
- By: Qwaider
- On:Thursday, May 18, 2006 12:00:51 AM
- In:Thoughts
- Viewed: (439447) times
- Currently 4.9/5 Stars.
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Rated 4.9/5 stars (4493 votes cast)
I was pleasantly surprised tonight to see queen Rania Al Abdallah on a Oprah. Yes .. yes, I secretly admit that I watch Oprah from time to time....
I even skipped an episode of "Dateline on NBC" with their hit "To catch an internet predator" where they prepare sting operations to capture men who try to solicit young girls/boy over the internet to have sex with them.
Now back to the main subject. The interview with Queen Rania went fantastic. The queen had composure and wasn't intimidated by the mighty Oprah. But what I loved the most was that Queen Rania is such a GREAT ambassador of our culture to the western world.
She talked about issues of Women rights in the Arab/Muslim world and how it's misrepresented in the west and that it's exaggerated in the western media when talking about the oppression of the Arab women.
She also talked about how open and tolerant the people of the east are, and gave few subtle hints to answer the question "Why do they hate us" while being extremely diplomatic and eloquent. She also talked about other issues in the middle east and on her vision of female education which surprisingly is not rivaled much in the west.
Even the self proclaimed "classy" Oprah dwarfed in the shadow if the vastly superior elegant Queen. The Queen continued to talk about her day to day life and how down to earth she and His Majesty the King are. Her Majesty, A mother of four also�how she is raising her children to work hard to get things and have strict rules regarding TV, games and other activities. They showed pictures of The King and the Queen having a barbecue in the backyard and them with the rest of the family. Truly a bright face of modern and moderate middle east.
A nice expos� during the show talked to three working women in Amman, now even-though I admit these don't represent everyone in the Jordanian landscape, however they did represent the middle and upper-middle classes closely. The showed the face of Jordanians to the world and how regular people go by their lives. In another segment they highlighted some of the work of Queen Rania in Jordan, and her many charitable, national and women's issues participations.
The queen�mentioned something that�I thought was amazingly well said and alluded to the fact that we too suffer from terrorism. She was talking about religious extremism, and referred to the extremists as being against all moderates with the goal of bringing the moderates in confrontation with each other. Therefore all moderates should unite against that. I strongly believe in that notion. I think it was pretty well presented.
That was a great show, now, I'll go watch dateline now, I have secretly" Tivoed it. Don't you just love technology!!?�
Links:
The show�What other bloggers said: Mental Mayhem�and Bakkouz�(sorry if I missed anyone)
(updated 5/19)
Update 6/6/06
The show will be shown on MBC4 on Wednesday, July 7th 2006
Memories....
I posted about this and linked to your post; I even borrowed the pictures :D
http://anolita.jeeran.com/mind/archive/2006/5/51171.html
I like the new design as well :)
Thanks :)
As for Allah being pleased with her, that's between Allah, and her. No body appointed me as a judge on behalf of Allah. I believe the relationship with the maker is a personal one. Whether I approve of it or not is irrelevant
U.A.E
Ma Salama