HM Queen Noor Extended royal family HRH Prince Hamzah HRH Princess Haya HRH Prince Hashim HRH Princess Fahdah HRH Princess Haalah HRH Princess Rayet Al Noor HRH Princess Iman HRH Princess Raiyah HRH Princess Haya HRH Prince Ali HRH Princess Rym HRH Princess Jalilah HRH Prince Abdullah Miss Abir Muhaisen Princess Dina HRH Princess Alia HRH Princess Muna HRH Prince Faisal HRH Princess Sara HRH Princess Ayah HRH Prince Omar HRH Princess Sara HRH Princess Aisha HRH Princess Aisha HRH Princess Zein HRH Prince Muhammad HRH Princess Taghrid HRH Prince Talal HRH Princess Ghida HRH Prince Hussein HRH Prince Muhammad HRH Princess Rajaa HRH Prince Ghazi HRH Princess Areej HRH Princess Tasneem HRH Prince Abdullah HRH Princess Jennah HRH Prince El Hassan HRH Princess Sarvath HRH Princess Rahma HRH Princess Sumaya HRH Princess Badiya HRH Prince Rashid HRH Princess Basma HRH Prince Ali HRH Princess Reema HRH Prince Muhammad HRH Princess Sima HRH Prince Hamzah HRH Princess Rania HRH Princess Karma HRH Princess Na'afa HRH Princess Rajwa HRH Princess Basma Fatima HRH Prince Asem HRH Princess Sana HRH Princess Yasmine HRH Princess Sarah HRH Princess Noor HRH Princess Salha HRH Princess Nejla HRH Prince Nayef Queen Noor of Jordan (Arabic : جلالة الملكة نور) (born Elizabeth (Lisa) Najeeb Halaby; August 23, 1951) is the last wife and widow of King Hussein of Jordan . She was queen consort of Jordan between 1978 and 1999. Since her husband's death in 1999, she has been queen dowager of Jordan. American by birth, and of Syrian ,[1] British , and Swedish descent, she acquired Jordanian citizenship and renounced her American citizenship at the time of her marriage. She is the current president of the United World Colleges movement and an advocate of the anti-nuclear weapons proliferation campaign, Global Zero .
Family and early life
Noor was born Lisa Najeeb Halaby in Washington, D.C. She is the daughter of Najeeb Halaby and Doris Carlquist. Her father was an aviator, airline executive, and government official. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Truman administration , before being appointed by John F. Kennedy to head the Federal Aviation Administration . Najeeb Halaby also had a successful private-sector career, serving as CEO of Pan American World Airways from 1969 to 1972. The Halabys had two children in addition to Lisa: a son, Christian, and another daughter, Alexa. They divorced in 1977.
Noor's paternal grandfather, Najeeb Elias Halaby, a Syrian immigrant of Lebanese origin, was a petroleum broker , according to 1920 Census records. Merchant Stanley Marcus , however, 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). Halaby died shortly afterward, and his estate was unable to continue the new enterprise.
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 around 1891, one of the earliest Syrian immigrants to the United States . He had been a Christian and provincial treasurer (magistrate) in the Ottoman Empire . He left Syria with his two eldest sons. His wife Almas and remaining children joined him in the USA 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, Texas, around 1910 and fully assimilated into American society.
Education
Lisa Halaby was born, raised, and educated in the United States. She attended National Cathedral School from fourth to eighth grade. She briefly attended The Chapin School in New York City 's Manhattan , then went on to Concord Academy in Massachusetts . She entered Princeton University with its first coeducational freshman class, and received a BA in Architecture and Urban Planning in 1973.
Career
After she graduated, Halaby moved to Australia, where she worked for a firm that specialized in planning new towns. She became increasingly interested in the Middle East and immediately accepted a job offer from a British architectural firm that had been employed to redesign the city of Tehran .
In 1976, Halaby moved back to the United States. She thought about earning a master's degree in journalism and starting a career in television production . However, she accepted a job offer from her father, who was commissioned by the Jordanian government to redesign their airlines. She became Director of Facilities Planning and Design of the airline he founded.
In 1977, Halaby, who attended various high-profile social events as the Director of Facilities Planning and Design, met King Hussein of Jordan for the first time on the development of the Queen Alia International Airport . The airport was named after Queen Alia , King Hussein's third wife, who died in a helicopter crash the same year. Halaby became a friend of the King, who was still mourning after the death of his wife. Their friendship evolved into romance and the couple became engaged in 1978.
Marriage and children
Halaby married the King on June 15, 1978 in Amman , becoming his fourth wife and Queen of Jordan. She renounced her USA citizenship upon marriage and converted to Islam , becoming known as Noor Al-Hussein (which means Light of Hussein). The Constitution of Jordan did not require her to convert but if she had not done so, her descendants would not have had succession rights. The wedding was a traditional Muslim ceremony. Initially, the new queen was not accepted by the people of Jordan, as she was not of Arab Muslim birth. Although their opinion is thought to have changed as Noor started expressing genuine interest and commitment to her kingdom, the differences were never completely resolved.
Upon marriage, Noor assumed the management of the royal household and three of her stepchildren, Princess Haya bint Al Hussein , Prince Ali bin Al Hussein , and Abir Muhaisen , the children of her husband by Queen Alia. Queen Noor and King Hussein had four children:
- Prince Hamzah (born March 29, 1980), Crown Prince from 1999 to 2004, who has a daughter
- Prince Hashim (born June 10, 1981), who has two daughters
- Princess Iman (born April 24, 1983)
- Princess Raiyah (born February 9, 1986)
Behind the scenes, Queen Noor was involved in politics, for which she was criticized by fundamentalists. In 1984, she supported her husband when he criticized the Americans for being one-sided in their commitment to Israel, while the Americans criticized her for siding with the Jordanians.
There have been tensions between Queen Noor and her sister-in-law, Princess Sarvath El Hassan , the wife of King Hussein's brother Hassan , who served as Crown Prince of Jordan until the last days of King Hussein's life. The tensions between the Queen and the then Crown Princess were exacerbated by the matter of succession. Queen Noor, who almost never left the King's side during his illness, entertained the idea of having her own son Hamzah proclaimed Crown Prince, influencing her husband to change the line of succession in his favour. Eventually Hussein appointed his eldest son Abdullah (from his marriage to the English-born Princess Muna ) as Crown Prince, the condition for such change being that Noor's son Hamzah become Crown Prince upon Abdullah's accession.
Widowhood
King Hussein died on February 7, 1999.
After the death of King Hussein, his firstborn son Abdullah became king and Hamzah became Crown Prince. In a surprise move of 2004, Prince Hamzah was stripped of his title as Jordan's next in line. On July 2, 2009, King Abdullah II named his eldest son as heir to the throne, ending five years of speculation over his successor.
Though the queen dowager , she is stepmother to King Abdullah II and thus cannot be classified as queen mother; accordingly she is known as HM Queen Noor of Jordan, as distinct from Abdullah's wife Queen Rania , who is styled HM The Queen of Jordan. The present King's mother is Princess Muna al-Hussein , an Englishwoman formerly known as Antoinette Avril Gardiner.
Affiliations and international activities
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HM Queen Noor's web site. Reflects her activities and concerns and international commitments. Resume of the Queen, picture gallery, touching pictures of King Hussein's final Read the rest
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A look at the life of Queen Noor of Jordan on Biography.com. Read the rest
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Queen Noor of Jordan, nee Lisa Halaby, is the widow of the late King Hussein of Jordan. Born and raised in America, Noor was King Hussein's fourth and final wife. She now Read the rest
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Her Majesty Queen Noor is an international public servant and an outspoken voice on issues of world peace and justice. She was born Lisa Najeeb Halaby to an Arab-American family Read the rest
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Queen Noor of Jordan (Arabic: جلالة الملكة نور ) (born Elizabeth (Lisa) Najeeb Halaby; August 23, 1951) is the last wife and widow of King Hussein of Jordan. Read the rest
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Noor al-Hussein (Queen Noor) [1951 - ] 1951 - Queen of Jordan and wife of King Hussein ibn Talal. Noor al-Hussein became queen of Jordan in 1978, Read the rest
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Queen Noor, Actress: Pangea Day. Lisa Najeeb Halaby was born in 1951 to Najeeb and Doris Halabay in California. Growing up she spent a lot of time with her paternal grandmother. Read the rest
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Her Majesty Queen Noor is an international public servant and an outspoken voice on issues of world peace and justice. She plays an active role in promoting Read the rest
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Find a profile of Queen Noor, along with photos and articles, on Chickipedia. More details on Queen Noor: her birthday is and she works as a . Read the rest
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Jordan's Queen Noor Wednesday said part of what led to Egypt's turmoil was the vast majority of U.S. aid was military, with little concern to the country's Read the rest