Do we like them?

Do we like Queen Rania of Jordan?

Our score: 7 out of 10. Decent and on the right side of what we could source, held back by a thin record and no LGBTQ+ statements found.

Queen Rania is the wife of King Abdullah II and has been one of the Arab world's most visible royals for decades. She turned 56 this August, and the palace marked it with a new portrait. She is a royal, not an elected politician, so there is no voting record to check her against.

Her biggest international moment came in October 2023, in a CNN interview about Gaza. Headlines had her calling out a “glaring double standard” in how the West treated the war. She said the conflict did not begin on 7 October. Where you land on that depends on whether you read it as a plea for equal concern for civilians or as one-sided. She spoke as a Palestinian-descended queen of a country that hosts many refugees.

On the harm test, we found nothing nasty. There are no attacks on women, migrants or minorities, no conspiracy theories, and no climate or vaccine denial in what we could read. She has kept up a friendly public relationship with US First Lady Melania Trump. That includes a January 2026 White House screening of the Melania film, and a September 2025 reunion at the UN. A friendly meeting is not harm, but it is worth knowing. The gap is real: we found no statement from her on LGBTQ+ rights, good or bad.

Nothing new on her lately that amounts to news. The recent coverage is ceremonial, such as Jordan's 80th Independence Day celebrations in May with the royal family. Tabloid rumours about her marriage and health have been floating around. They aren't backed by any reputable outlet, so we've left them out.

The good stuff is mostly long-running work on education and children, which birthday coverage this year again put at the centre of her public life. That is what she is known for, not trophies. We couldn't open the older pages on criticism of her, so we can't say more about it here.

Put together, she looks like a decent public figure working on causes we'd back, with one outspoken position on Gaza that fans and critics read differently. If you want a solid yes, the missing piece is what she says about queer people. Until then it's a warm lean yes, not a cheer.