Queen Rania of Jordan Quotations

I have nothing against the veil. And I think that, wrongly, many in the West look at the veil as a symbol of oppression. Now, as long as a woman chooses to wear the veil, because that's her belief and because of her own - that's a personal relationship with God, so she should be free to dress in whichever way she wants.

Being popular comes when you have everything. But to be liked, it means that you must be treating people with respect and you must be showing kindness toward them.

If one girl with courage is a revolution, imagine what feats we can achieve together.

In education, technology can be a life-changer, a game changer, for kids who are both in school and out of school. Technology can bring textbooks to life. The Internet can connect students to their peers in other parts of the world. It can bridge the quality gaps.

I think change needs to be egoless. It's not about my leaving my fingerprints or a legacy. It's more important to be part of a process by rolling up your sleeves, being on the ground, initiating projects, starting campaigns - you know, building stuff.

Social media are a catalyst for the advancement of everyone's rights. It's where we're reminded that we're all human and all equal. It's where people can find and fight for a cause, global or local, popular or specialized, even when there are hundreds of miles between them.

We shouldn't judge people through the prism of our own stereotypes.

I'd rather be dealt with as a person than a persona. With my children, I'm just 'Mom.' At the end of the day, the position is just a position, a title is just a title, and those things come and go. It's really your essence and your values that are important.

When you educate a girl, you kick-start a cycle of success. It makes economic sense. It makes social sense. It makes moral sense. But, it seems, it's not common sense yet.

When you deprive people of their right to live in dignity, to hope for a better future, to have control over their lives, when you deprive them of that choice, then you expect them to fight for these rights.

At the end of the day, the position is just a position, a title is just a title, and those things come and go. It's really your essence and your values that are important.

The protocol things, the officialdom, are part of my work. But it doesn't take more than 20 percent of my time. The majority of my time I spend on issues that I care about.

We need another revolution in the Arab world. We need an education revolution. If there's one thing we need to focus on, it's redesigning our educational systems.

I think generally, in life, I try to always ensure that there are periodic moments where I do venture out of my comfort zone, because that's what keeps you alive. That's what keeps you from getting stale.

People sometimes think of 'queen' as a title that's shrouded with protocol and formality, and for that reason sometimes people are not easily saying what they want to say. They're reluctant to express their opinions, and I kind of find that frustrating because I want to know what people really, really think.

Look at any country that's plagued with poverty, disease or violence; the antidote is girls. Girls are the antibodies to many of society's ills.

When girls are educated, you get effects that cascade throughout society.

My role models are people who can do things; I say to myself, 'I wish I could do that.'

Holy scripture does not hold women back. It's the people that decide to interpret it in such a way for their own, sometimes political, agendas.

By its very nature, hard-line ideology is self-serving and self-perpetuating; its primary goal is to survive - and that precludes everything.

A woman caring for her children; a woman striving to excel in the private sector; a woman partnering with her neighbors to make their street safer; a woman running for office to improve her country - they all have something to offer, and the more our societies empower women, the more we receive in return.

I believe that if we want our children to understand the world beyond their classroom, we must bring the world into their classroom.

Of course democracy is good, but it is a process, not a prescription.

I think that, as is the case offline, we should not be tolerant of hate speech, racist comments, or groups that promote hatred or intolerance in any shape or form.

I found that being online has opened a window for me to look into other people's lives... The greatest fear that I have is losing touch.

I want to be that person who could sacrifice everything for others.

Religion and modernity are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

I've learned to take things a little more easily, to be a little more forgiving of myself.

The more time goes on, the closer I am to the ground. I've been exposed to so many issues and people living under different pressures. It's helped me realize that a lot of glamorous things that people prioritize really don't matter.

I'd rather be dealt with as a person than a persona.

For many, the hijab represents modesty, piety and devotion to God, and I truly respect that. But the hijab should not be used as a means of applying social pressure on people.

Of course, I tweet. Tweeting is a very personal form of expression. Who else could talk about my son refusing to wear a suit to meet the Pope, my husband flying a helicopter, or take a twitpic from our home?

I don't think people by nature are extremists. You will never find a population of extremists. Extremists have existed throughout the centuries on all religions. And what happens is, extremists start to have more leverage when the situation is bad.

I work in areas related to child protection and family safety, women's empowerment, the creation of opportunities for youth, and culture and tourism. Daunting? Yes. Impossible? No. In fact, such challenges energize me.

Role models can inspire. Campaigns can motivate. But if we want all girls everywhere to rise up, then we must find them, befriend them and support them.

We always say Jordan is not rich in natural resources - we don't have oil or gas like some of our neighbors do - but I think in terms of human resources, we are quite lucky and we are really trying to foster an environment of innovation and technology. I think Jordan will emerge as a center of innovation in the Middle East.

Now and always, hard-line policy and those who embrace it are vessels for darker forces that are at once self-cannibalizing and combustible. No good can come of them. They are unsustainable because their sense of righteousness denies human worth.

Learning to read and write changes lives; it means jobs, money, health, and dreams fulfilled.

To achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East takes guts, not guns.

Perhaps if we all subscribed to the African concept of Ubuntu - that we all become people through other people, and that we cannot be fully human alone, we could learn a lot. There'd be less hatred and more harmony.

We're programmed to believe that time is the enemy, that it takes away from us or that it diminishes us. I have found that it's done the opposite to me. Life is in perfect balance. It's just that our perception of it isn't.

Everybody's social life in Jordan revolves around family.

I really feel that political will is born out of popular will.

I'm amazed by the misconceptions about Muslim women and the Arab world that I hear, and that really does hurt me.

Maybe clothes are a form of creative expression for me. An outlet. Because I don't get to express myself creatively through my official duties.

Well, my husband is supportive of my work, like advocating for dialogue between cultures on YouTube.

I feel that we don't have the luxury of asking whether or not the Palestinians and Israelis can achieve peace. I think we have to just ask the question of when and how.

The United States was an innocent victim after September 11. It had never attacked or occupied Afghanistan. So therefore it had no choice but to go after the aggressors.

Tweeting is a very personal form of expression. Who else could talk about my son refusing to wear a suit to meet the Pope, my husband flying a helicopter, or take a twitpic from our home?

As a child I sometimes used to travel to the West Bank to visit my family, so I know what the checkpoints felt like. I knew what it was like to live under occupation.

Children who have an education grow up to lead healthier lives - earn higher income, take better care of their families, contribute to their economies.

Often times, we think of girls as soft and vulnerable. And we don't really think of them as possibly being the solutions to some of the world's toughest problems, but they really are.

It isn't often that the logic behind a policy is so clear. But when it comes to the value of educating girls, the evidence speaks for itself.

Twitter's a great way to tell people across the world what I care about and, hopefully, motivate them to join me in furthering my causes. It's also a fantastic medium to hear the ideas and opinions of people I might not otherwise get to meet.

Eighty percent of my life is normal like any other mother. I worry about my children, if they're doing all right. I worry that my husband is doing well. The 20 percent is just the queen aspect that factors in. But for me, it's life as usual, and it's just taking care of my family.

The average Jordanian has much in common with the average American in terms of the values that we share, the fact that we all value the family unit, our work ethic.

I don't know if I'd put labels on myself, but I do feel that when women are empowered, they have the power to transform society.

It's about using social media for social change: creating a community of advocates who can use their voices on behalf of the voiceless, or leverage their talents, skills, knowledge, and resources to put more children into classrooms, or pressure their elected representatives to get global education top of the agenda.

First of all, in many Muslim countries women have incredible amounts of freedom, sometimes more than in some countries in Europe. So you cannot just make a generalized statement about women. Second, Islam is not the problem. It's tradition. It's culture. It's age-old mind-sets that need to be changed.

Today, I join King Abdullah in Paris to stand in solidarity with the people of France in their darkest hour...To stand in unity against extremism in all its forms and to stand up for our cherished faith, Islam. And so that the lasting image of these terrible events is an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy and support between people of all faiths and cultures.

If you educate a boy, you educate a person, but if you educate a girl, you educate a family and benefit an entire community.” An entire community - now that is really interesting! Then I found the quote changed a little more on the Kingdom of Jordan website by her Royal Majesty Queen Rania of Jordan during her interview with Oprah Winfrey. Queen Rania relates the quote in these words: “As you educate a woman, you educate the family. If you educate the girls, you educate the future.

Modernity is not about dress codes.

Polls show that Arabs admire a lot of the Western values, cultural aspects in the West. It is more about policies than about way of life.

The job description for a queen changes with the times.

The youth are the catalysts for real change.

Muslim women must stand up and speak out about who we are, what we believe and where we are going. I think we need to know that our counterparts in the west are also willing to listen and reciprocate.

The hardest [part] is some of the misperceptions that are leveled against me as a person and against Muslim women.

Extremism is not endemic in my region, nor is anti-Western sentiment. No doubt there is discontent and distrust. That is towards more the American and some Western policies, and not toward the American people.

There are so many misperceptions and stereotypes out there that I would love to see clarified one day.

My position attracts a fair amount of rumors and gossip and misperceptions, but I'd rather not focus on that.

I don't lose sleep over failures. I worry about the successes and how they can be replicated.

I don't believe that there is fair enough understanding of either our status as women or the total context of our lives, which is very rich and multi-faceted.

It is all too easy to draw conclusions and make sweeping judgments about millions of Muslim women based on fleeting television images. That is not right.

Women in Jordan are participating in all aspects of civil as well as political life - as female judges, parliamentarians, businesswomen. And the evolution will continue. This is not something that happens overnight.

Being queen is overrated.

Travelers are the greatest ambassadors of tolerance.

You cannot kill an ideology with a bullet. You can only kill it with a better idea.

Values are the shields that you carry throughout life and it protects you from whatever life throws at you.

Whatever title or office we may be privileged to hold, it is what we do that defines who we are ... Each of us must decide what kind of person we want to be-what kind of legacy that we want to pass on.

I don't believe there is a clash between cultures. I believe there is a clash between perceptions of each other.

Good teachers teach. Great teachers transform.

Children keep us in check. Their laughter prevents our hearts from hardening. Their dreams ensure we never lose our drive to make ours a better world. They are the greatest disciplinarians known to mankind.

We look at problems happening halfway across the world and we think, 'Well, that's their problem.' But it's not. ... When you solve somebody else's problem, you're solving a problem for yourself because our world today is so interconnected.

We are stronger when we listen,and smarter when we share.

Educate a woman and you educate her family. Educate a girl and you change the future.