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The Role of the Middle Eastern First Lady in the Public Sphere: a Case Study of Queen Rania of Jordan

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The Role of the Middle Eastern First Lady in the Public Sphere: a Case Study of Queen Rania of Jordan Competition and Cooperation in Social and Political Sciences – Adi & Achwan (Eds) © 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-62676-8 The role of the Middle Eastern first lady in the public sphere: A case study of Queen Rania of Jordan R.N. Fitria & Apipudin School of Postgraduate, Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Universitas Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia ABSTRACT: This research investigates the importance of the Middle Eastern first lady expand her role not only in private but also in the public sphere. So far, the significance of the Middle Eastern first lady’s role has not been widely studied. Most Middle Eastern women, including the first lady, are normally considered to have minimal roles in society. In contrast to that statement, this study suggests that a region, where the patriarchal culture is particularly strong, the first ladies show significant contributions to the wider community. Queen Rania of Jordan shows that being the spouse of the king in the Middle East does not preclude her potential to contribute. In this paper, the roles of Queen Rania are analysed using a qualitative case study approach. This study proves that a number of Middle Eastern first ladies play their role in society according to opportunities and challenges that occur in their region. In contrast to other Middle Eastern first ladies, Queen Rania has her own char- acteristic of contributing and delivering her ideas in the public sphere. 1 INTRODUCTION This article supports the argument that the first ladies of the Middle East have considerable impact on the community. Paul Kennedy, a British historian, places women’s roles as one of three main elements that help society face the 21st century, besides economy and education. A woman determines the quality of the people around her and the next generation (Kennedy, 1993). Women in this century are expected to become self-sufficient figures who balance between responsibilities in the family and in the community (Agrawal & Joglekar, 2013). Women are not always positioned as the main leader who is able to play a strategic role. The first lady, for example, is usually portrayed as a behind-the-scenes figure. However, they may have important roles in various aspects in a country even though there are not any responsi- bilities explicitly written in the constitution. In international scientific literature, the significance of the Middle East first ladies’ role has not been explored and discussed excessively. Nevertheless, a long study of the first ladies of other regions is, in fact, not a new concept. In the United States, for example, a paper by Lewis L. Gould explains the roles of the first ladies in the country from the past until now (Gould, 1985). Another article, written by Karen O’Connor, Bernadette Nye and Laura Van Assendelft, discusses the influence of the United States’ first ladies in politics and public policies. The writers start off the article by giving an introduction and description of the first ladies’ political activities through comparative-quantitative data on 38 women who have mar- ried presidents. Furthermore, they explain the variety of roles played by the first ladies and evaluate the influence of their roles on politics and public policies (O’Connor, et al., 1996). The public role of the first lady in this country has been well studied for decades, for exam- ple, by Betty Houchin Winfield. Winfield (1988) states that the public relations aspect of this White House position is now all too important. The American first lady is a public national woman. If she leaves a legacy in this status, she plays a large part in making the first lady a visible, modern, feminine ideal (Winfield, 1988). In Europe, the concept of the first lady was 315 written about by Ina Woodcock in her dissertation. Woodcock (1998), who learned about the Empress Livia case study, states that the first lady does not have the access to be part of the official government structure of a country. However, the first ladies are allowed to bring massive influence from all resources available in the private sphere. The private sphere does not hinder nor restrict them to use all their potential to contribute. The Middle Eastern region is often portrayed as a monolithic, traditional, and patriarchal culture (Schwedler, 2006). According to the research of Global Gender Gap Index 2015, Middle Eastern women have the lowest percentage of awareness regarding equality. Only 59% of women have full awareness of the matter (Bekhouche, 2013. However, the assump- tion regarding the lack of female roles in the Middle East, or in this context, the first lady’s roles, needs to be reanalysed. Even though it is not often studied by researchers, the region that is famous for its strong patriarchal culture has turned out to have a large number of first ladies who contribute to the wider community. Among the Middle Eastern first ladies who have roles in the public sphere, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah stands out as an interesting subject to be studied Queen Rania, who is of Palestinian origin and became Queen of Jordan at the age of 28, has more than just youth, a pretty face and an elegant sense of fashion. Queen Rania has an intensive commitment and contribution to the public sphere. She has contrib- uted both in national and international arenas. Moreover, she never leaves her critical roles as a wife and a mother of four children. Information regarding the public role of the Middle Eastern first ladies, Queen Rania and her contributions in the national and international realm can be obtained through various references and other studies about the role of the first lady. This information will be analysed to find Queen Rania’s main roles in the public sphere, using a qualitative case study approach proposed by John W. Creswell (2009). This study is expected to support other studies about first ladies in the Middle East, especially in Jordan. Specifically, this study can be used as a reference for governments in regulating policies regarding the contribution of the first lady of a country. 2 THE MIDDLE EASTERN FIRST LADIES’ ROLES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE The concept of a role cannot be separated from the concept of status. Neil J. Smelser (1981), in his book titled Sociology, states that every person occupies a certain position in society. Each social position with rights and obligations is called status. In accordance with Smelser’s explanation, Linton (as cited in Lewis A. Coser, 1976) stated that ‘a status, as distinct from the individual who may occupy it, is simply a collection of rights and duties.’ Adding to this explanation, Horton and Hunt (1984), define status as a rank or position of an individual in a group. They also add that status is a rank or position of a group in relation to the other groups. Meanwhile, role is the behaviour which is expected from an individual who occupies a certain status. In some cases status and role are two aspects of the same phenomenon. Status is a set of rights and duties while a role is the actualisation of that set of rights and duties. Every individual has roles, and it is called a role set. The term role set is used to show that status not only has a single role, but also has several correlated and matching roles (Merton, as cited in Horton & Hunt, 1984). The concept of a series of roles can be explored further to discuss the role of the first lady. In 1961, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy (as cited in Westfall, 2016), stated that the main role of a woman who occupied first lady status was ‘to take care of the president so that he can best serve the people. And not to fail her family, her husband, and children’. However, the role of the first lady does not end there because each individual holds several roles and positions in society. Gould (1985) adds that the first lady is expected to take on the role of a woman who is able to represent and contribute to herself, her family and also her country. In the Middle East, a number of first ladies contribute to their countries in the public realm, such as Iffat AlThunayan from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Emine Erdoğan from Turkey, Susan Mubarak from Egypt, as well as Noor and Rania Al-Abdullah from Jordan. 316 Iffat Al-Thunayan, King Faisal bin ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Al Sa’ud’s wife during her husband’s reign, brought many progressive ideas into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia such as improving edu- cation and health care in the country for both men and women (Kechichian, 2014). At the end of Faisal’s rule, Iffat was referred to as queen: this was a token of special respect, since the wives of Saudi kings were never usually regarded as queens (Vassiliev, 1998). In Turkey, Emine Erdoğan plays a significant role in political and social life (WISE Summit, 2014). According to a web page sponsored by the Presidency of The Republic of Turkey, Emine Erdoğan has practiced philanthropy and supported important projects concerned with the education of women and children. Besides that, Mrs. Erdoğan has also encouraged women all over the country to take part in business as well as in politics (Turkey, n.d.). In Egypt, Suzanne Mubarak was ‘a founder and chairperson of the Integrated Care Society established in 1977, a non-profit organisation with the main objective of providing social, cultural and health care to school children. (FAO, 2009).’ This organisation carries out various activities such as a vigorous campaign on ‘Reading for all’ that has stimulated a national movement focused on young and adult readers.
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