Her majesty Rania of Jordan, the face of a new Middle East

 Let's go to the Orient. Let your cliché behind you and discover the new face of the muslim woman: Rania of Jordan, symbol of the oriental modern woman

Her majesty the Queen Rania of Jordan

   The picture above represents the occidental cliché we have about an oriental woman. The cliché is even more meaningful when it is about a very special woman, the queen of Jordan. Because of her status we expect to see a woman with modesty and restraint, but above all what we expect is a woman wearing the hijab.

The royal couple of Jordan during their wedding

   Yet, the queen Rania of Jordan shines and charms with her beauty, but without the hijab. As a first lady she also represents her country. Like the other first ladies, she is the glamour face of the couple she is forming with her husband, the king Abdallah. But her role is more difficult to represent as she embodies the oriental woman to western countries. Like I said before clichés about women are numerous in the western mind, some are acknowleged, others are not.

Rania is the embodiement of modernism and rejection of the extremism that a lot of people blames Orient for. Her public appearances are the occasion for the international press to admire her beauty and her grace. Besides being a queen politically speaking, she has become for the rest of the world, a beauty queen.

   While designers were struggling to dress her, she chose Elie Saab to make the organza dress that she wore during her coronation. The cut is simple and straight whereas the embroderies and the collar are giving the necessary somptuosity for such an event. 

Ten years later, during the festivities to celebrate this same coronation, Rania doesn't hesitate to wear the same dress but this time with a silvered belt that gives a second life to the dress. Indeed, the queen is attached to symbols and follows her heart, not only with her clothes but also with politics. Rania of Jordan is indeed involved in numerous humanitarian actions in favor of children. She also fights for equality in education and for women rights of which she is the spokeperson. 

Her wedding dress by Elie Saab worn 10 years later

   If we are speaking about symbols, the style of Rania of Jordan is an essential one. Heels, pencil skirts and belts to highlight her thin waist are the basic fashion items of the queen. She changes colors and fabrics but they are two elements that are definitely standing out: the length of her skirts, just above the knee, and necklines are pretty rare in her wardrobe. Here lays the cliché of the chaste muslim woman. But Rania follows the religious precepts by adapting them to her own way of thinking, by modernizing the traditional side of the muslim women wardrobe. 

   However modernity doesn't mean a denial of origins. Her majesty the queen of Jordan is a Middle East woman and absolutely assumes her palestinian origins, her education in Koweit and her life as a woman and mother in Jordan. During official ceremonies, she doesn't hesitate to wear clothes very oriental, like during her visit in Sweden. The golden belt reminds of belly dancers and the indented sleeves gives a very oriental style to her dress.

The queen Rania during her official visit in Sweden

   Event hough in Jordan the public opinion is divided about the queen, the traditionalists blaming her for her progressism and the others supporting her for her modern vision, the international opinion is unanimous: her majesty the queen Rania delights hearts and eyes. This enables her to deliver her message, that is to say that muslim women should be free to choose to wear or not to wear the hijab, that all people are equals whatever the origins. Her message is here to end the cliché that are existing between East and West. 

A queen with an occidental style and progressist

   Again, the gown is speaking, even when the queen is silent, and its voice touches all the world.

Blondyn_Bubble 
(translated from french by Shug'A'Very)