Queen Noor celebrates birthday today

AMMAN — Her Majesty Queen Noor celebrates her birthday on Tuesday.

Upon her marriage to His Majesty King Hussein in 1978, Queen Noor embraced her role as a Jordanian public servant.  

She is also a global humanitarian and advocate for cross-cultural understanding and conflict prevention and recovery issues such as refugees, missing persons, poverty alleviation, climate change and disarmament, according to a Royal Court statement released Monday. 

Her peace-building work has focused on the Middle East, the Balkans, Central and Southeast Asia, Latin America and Africa. 

Queen Noor’s work in Jordan and the Arab world has focused on national and regional human security in the areas of education, sustainable development, human rights and cross-cultural exchange. 

Since 1979, the initiatives of the Noor Al Hussein Foundation (NHF) and the King Hussein Foundation (KHF), which she founded and chairs, have advanced development thinking in Jordan and the Middle East through programmes in education, poverty eradication, women’s empowerment, microfinance, health, and arts as a medium for social development and cross-cultural understanding. 

The foundations provide training and capacity-building expertise in these areas in the broader Arab and Asian regions.

The KHF, today, encompasses the Noor Al Hussein Foundation and eight specialised development institutions: the Jubilee Institute, the Information and Research Centre, the National Music Conservatory, the National Centre for Culture and Arts, and the initiatives of the NHF: the Institute for Family Health, the Community Development Programme, Tamweelcom — the Jordan Micro Credit Company and most recently, the Islamic microfinance company, Ethmar.

Queen Noor is also chair of the King Hussein Foundation International which, since 2001, has awarded the King Hussein Leadership Prize to individuals, groups, or institutions that demonstrate inspiring leadership in their efforts to promote sustainable development, human rights, tolerance, social equity and peace. 

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.  

Since 2001, she has been a commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons, created to promote reconciliation and conflict resolution after the Balkans war.

Since 1995, Queen Noor has been president of the United World Colleges, a network of 17 equal-opportunity International Baccalaureate colleges around the world.

Queen Noor has been an adviser to, and global advocate for, the International Campaign to Ban Landmines since 1998. She is also a founding leader of Global Zero, an international movement working for the worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons, and an adviser to Trust Women — the Thomson Reuters Foundation annual conference aiming to put the rule of law behind women’s rights.

She has two published books, “Hussein of Jordan”, and “Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life”, a New York Times bestseller published in 17 languages.

Queen Noor has four children: Their Royal Highnesses Princes Hamzah and Hashem and Princesses Iman and Raiyah, and nine grandchildren.