Queen Noor of Jordan

Queen Noor was born Lisa Najeeb Halaby^[4] in Washington, D.C., U.S., the eldest child of Najeeb Halaby (1915–2003) and Doris Carlquist (1918–2015). Her paternal family is Syrian; her maternal family is Swedish American.^[5] Her father was raised a Christian Scientist^[6] and was a Navy experimental test pilot, an airline executive, and government official. He served as an aide to the United States Secretary of Defense in the Truman administration, before being appointed by President John F. Kennedy to head the Federal Aviation Administration. Najeeb Halaby also had a private-sector career, serving as CEO of Pan American World Airways from 1969 to 1972. The Halabys had two children following Lisa; a son, Christian, and a younger daughter, Alexa. The children were raised nominally Episcopalian.^[6] Najeeb and Doris divorced in 1977.^[6] Doris, who was of Swedish descent, died on December 25, 2015, aged 97.^[7]

Noor's paternal grandfather was Najeeb Elias Halaby, a Syrian-Lebanese businessman born in Zahle, and whose parents hailed from Aleppo.^[8][9][10] He was a petroleum broker, according to 1920 Census records.^[11] Merchant Stanley Marcus 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). Najeeb Halaby died shortly afterward, and his estate was unable to continue the new enterprise.^[12]

According to research done in 2010 for the PBS series Faces of America by Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., of Harvard University, her great-grandfather, Elias Halaby, came to New York circa 1891, one of the earliest Syrian-Lebanese immigrants to the United States. He was a Christian as well as having been a provincial treasurer (magistrate)^[13] as stated before by Najeeb Halaby in his autobiography Crosswinds: an Airman's Memoir.^[8] He left Ottoman Syria with his two eldest sons. His wife, Almas Mallouk, and their remaining children joined him in the United States in 1894. He died three years later, leaving his teenage sons, Habib, and Najeeb (her paternal grandfather), to run his import business. Najeeb moved to Dallas around 1910 and fully assimilated into U.S. society.^[14]

Halaby attended schools in New York and California before entering National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C. from fourth to eighth grade. She attended the Chapin School in New York City for two years,^[15] and then went on to graduate from Concord Academy.

She entered Princeton University with its first coeducational freshman class and received an A.B. in architecture and urban planning in 1974 after completing a 32-page long senior thesis titled "96th Street and Second Avenue."^[16][17] She was also a member of Princeton's first women's ice hockey team.^[18]

After she graduated from Princeton, Halaby moved to Australia, where she worked for a firm that specialized in planning new towns, with a burgeoning interest in the Middle East. Because of Halaby's Syrian roots, this had special appeal for her. After a year, in 1975, she accepted a job offer from Llewelyn Davies, a British architectural and planning firm, which had been employed to design a model capital city center in Tehran, Iran. When increasing political instability forced the company to relocate to the UK, she traveled to the Arab world and decided to apply to Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism while taking a temporary aviation facility research job in Amman. Eventually, she left Arab Air and accepted a job with Alia Airlines to become Director of Facilities Planning and Design. Halaby and the king became friends while he was still mourning the death of his third wife. Their friendship evolved and the couple became engaged in 1978.^[1]

Halaby wed King Hussein on June 15, 1978, in Amman, becoming Queen of Jordan.^[19]

Before her marriage, she accepted her husband's Sunni Islamic religion and upon the marriage, changed her name from Lisa Halaby to the royal name Noor Al Hussein ("Light of Hussein"). The wedding was a traditional Muslim ceremony. Noor assumed management of the royal household and three stepchildren, Princess Haya bint Al Hussein, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein and Abir Muhaisen (her husband's children by Queen Alia).^[1] Noor and Hussein had four children:

• Hamzah (born March 29, 1980, in Amman), Crown Prince from 1999 to 2004, who has five daughters and two sons.
• Prince Hashim (born June 10, 1981, in Amman), who has three daughters and two sons.
• Princess Iman (born April 24, 1983, in Amman), who has one son.
• Princess Raiyah (born February 9, 1986, in Amman).

Domestic agenda edit

Queen Noor founded the King Hussein Foundation (KHF) in 1979. It includes the Noor Al Hussein Foundation and eight specialized development institutions: the Jubilee Institute, the Information and Research Center, the National Music Conservatory, the National Center for Culture and Arts and the Institute for Family Health, the Community Development Program, Tamweelcom the Jordan Micro Credit Company and the Islamic microfinance company, Ethmar. She is the Honorary Chairperson of JOrchestra. In addition, Queen Noor launched a youth initiative, the International Arab Youth Congress, in 1980.^[20]

International agenda edit

Queen Noor's international work focuses on environmental issues and the connection to human security with emphasis on water and ocean health. At the 2017 Our Ocean Conference, she delivered a keynote address on the link between climate change and ocean health with human security.^[21] Queen Noor is Patron of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Founding and Emeritus President of BirdLife International, Trustee Emeritus of Conservation International, and an Ocean Elder.^[22] She was also chair of King Hussein Foundation International, a US non-profit 501(c)(3) which, since 2001, has awarded the King Hussein Leadership Prize. She is the president of the international board, the governing board of international movement for the UWC movement.

She speaks Arabic, English and French.

King Hussein died on February 7, 1999, from lymphatic cancer. After his death, his first-born son, Abdullah II, became king and Hamzah became crown prince. In 2004, Prince Hamzah was unexpectedly stripped of his status as heir designate.^[23][24][25] On July 2, 2009, Abdullah named his eldest son as heir-apparent to the throne, thereby ending the previous five years' speculation over his successor.^[24]

Noor divides her time among Jordan, the US (Washington, D.C.) and the United Kingdom (in London and at her country residence, Buckhurst Park, near Winkfield in Berkshire). She continues to work on behalf of numerous international organizations.^[26] She also enjoys skiing, water skiing, tennis, sailing, horseback riding, reading, gardening and photography.^[27] She held amateur radio callsign JY1NH, but the license has lapsed.^[28]

National honours edit

•  Jordan:
  • Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of the Order of al-Hussein bin Ali^{[citation needed]}
  • Knight of the Order of Military Glory^{[citation needed]}
  • Knight Grand Cordon (Special Class) of the Supreme Order of the Renaissance^{[citation needed]}
  • Knight Grand Cordon of the Order of the Star of Jordan^{[citation needed]}

Foreign honours edit

•  Austria:
  • Grand Star of the Order of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria^[29]
•  Brunei:
  • Member First Class of the Family Order of Laila Utama^{[citation needed]}
•  Denmark:
  • Knight of the Order of the Elephant (1998)^[30]
•  Egypt:
  • Grand Cross Special Class of the Order of the Virtues^{[citation needed]}
•  France:
  • Grand Cross of the Order of the Legion of Honour
•  Italy:
  • Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic^[31]
•  Luxembourg:
  • Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Gold Lion of the House of Nassau
•  Spain:
  • Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III^[32]
  • Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic^[33]
•  Sweden:
  • Member of the Royal Order of the Seraphim^[34]
•  United Kingdom:
  • Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Saint John^[35]

Awards edit

• 2001: Blessed are the Peacemakers Award from Catholic Theological Union^[36]

• Hashemites

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Queen Noor of Jordan.

• King Hussein Foundation website
• Noor Al Hussein Foundation website
• Global Zero Campaign
• Transcript of a speech given at The Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts in 1996
• 2002 commencement speech – Mount Holyoke College
• Appearances on C-SPAN