Queen Alia thread part 1 - Page 6

mousbah · #**101** 09-20-2004, 02:10 PM

next photos

mousbah · #**102** 09-20-2004, 02:13 PM

next pics qalia

mousbah · #**103** 09-20-2004, 02:16 PM

next pics Queen and King Jordan

La la · #**104** 09-20-2004, 03:25 PM

Mousbah,

Are those kids in the pix above, Haya and Abir or Haya and Ali?

mousbah · #**105** 09-21-2004, 12:45 AM

Are Haya and Abir, Haya wear red cap

sommone · #**106** 09-21-2004, 01:51 AM

I just realized that Haya and Ali didn't have a chance of being tall...I didn't realize Alia and KH were almost the same height. I wonder how tall is Ali? I need to start previewing my posts before posting...I'm getting careless.

golden sun · #**107** 09-21-2004, 04:02 AM

she is so nice i think that prince Ali is not tall from Tv i can say that he is maybe 170 cm not more but he is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo like his mother speically his eyes

La la · #**108** 09-21-2004, 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mousbah

Are Haya and Abir, Haya wear red cap

Thanks! Not to sound shallow, but you could never tell whether Abir is their adopted daughter or biological daughter from these pictures. It gladdens me to see what a warm lady she was. Does Haya and Abir have a good relationship?

mousbah · #**109** 09-21-2004, 10:42 AM

Abir is adopted

salma · #**110** 11-26-2004, 12:20 PM

from ANP:

Queen Alia:
1. In conference.
2. With Abeer and Haya

maryshawn · #**111** 11-29-2004, 01:55 PM

Just getting back to fashions for a quick sec, in her autobiography, Noor disparages her own wardrobe and mentions she is thankful for advice given to her to send assistant to pick up fashions from designers used by Queens Alia and Zein--Valentino being one. Interestingly enough, she notes KH loved extravagent clothing on her--some of which she was not very comfortable in as she thought it flashy. For one particular State event, she said she felt ridiculous as KH selected a very elaborate outfit while her counterpart wore a simple, elegant dress. She learned to combine simpler pieces as time went on. I know I've seen early photos where she does look like someone else pieced her together in designer but dowdy clothing. Then it was the "Dynasty" period and she was dressed to the 9's at all times. But by the early 90s, she had it down to jean skirts and Ralph Lauren for casual, simple suits and dresses for business, and caftans for elegant affairs. I think she found a formula which worked for her. I did read an acccount by the house manager who worked for them in the 80s in the "Washingtonian." He said her wardrobe was so vast at that time, she had hired a woman whose only duty was to photograph and put together folders on Noor's wardrobe. That way, in preparation for a trip, Noor simply had to take the folders and flip through them and select what she wanted to bring. Diana did the same thing--only added notations on when/where outfit had been worn before. Now, THAT seems excessive when you get to the point of having folders to document your vast wardrobe....

I also rethought my post about how KH could marry so soon after Alia's death. Having just gone through a very loving relationship which ended suddenly, I am now convinced many men need companionship. He loved Alia then saw a woman who resembled her very much. I don't understand it but some men are able to pull themselves together and move on even after losing great loves.....I don't see as many women having that capability. I read a piece in BIOGRAPHY on great love affairs in Hollywood. To a one, the men--Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton--remarried quickly after losing their great loves to death or illness or divorce. So, KH is not so very different after all and when I saw the PEOPLE issue at the time of the marriage, the side by sides of Lisa Halaby and Queen Alia were striking. They looked very alike.

sommone · #**112** 11-29-2004, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maryshawn

Just getting back to fashions for a quick sec, in her autobiography, Noor disparages her own wardrobe and mentions she is thankful for advice given to her to send assistant to pick up fashions from designers used by Queens Alia and Zein--Valentino being one. Interestingly enough, she notes KH loved extravagent clothing on her--some of which she was not very comfortable in as she thought it flashy. For one particular State event, she said she felt ridiculous as KH selected a very elaborate outfit while her counterpart wore a simple, elegant dress. She learned to combine simpler pieces as time went on. I know I've seen early photos where she does look like someone else pieced her together in designer but dowdy clothing. Then it was the "Dynasty" period and she was dressed to the 9's at all times. But by the early 90s, she had it down to jean skirts and Ralph Lauren for casual, simple suits and dresses for business, and caftans for elegant affairs. I think she found a formula which worked for her. I did read an acccount by the house manager who worked for them in the 80s in the "Washingtonian." He said her wardrobe was so vast at that time, she had hired a woman whose only duty was to photograph and put together folders on Noor's wardrobe. That way, in preparation for a trip, Noor simply had to take the folders and flip through them and select what she wanted to bring. Diana did the same thing--only added notations on when/where outfit had been worn before. Now, THAT seems excessive when you get to the point of having folders to document your vast wardrobe....

I also rethought my post about how KH could marry so soon after Alia's death. Having just gone through a very loving relationship which ended suddenly, I am now convinced many men need companionship. He loved Alia then saw a woman who resembled her very much. I don't understand it but some men are able to pull themselves together and move on even after losing great loves.....I don't see as many women having that capability. I read a piece in BIOGRAPHY on great love affairs in Hollywood. To a one, the men--Clark Gable, Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton--remarried quickly after losing their great loves to death or illness or divorce. So, KH is not so very different after all and when I saw the PEOPLE issue at the time of the marriage, the side by sides of Lisa Halaby and Queen Alia were striking. They looked very alike.

You think QN and QA look alike? I don't see it. Don't get me wrong...both women were/are attractive women, but that is where the resemblance begins and ends. I'm curious though...what is it about the two that makes you think they look alike?

maryshawn · #**113** 12-16-2004, 12:41 AM

We've seen the lovely photos. Here are some impressions of QA, the person:

From Mrs. Trudeau:

I met her and KH for the first time when they came to Ottawa for an official visit, immediately after the 1974 elections. We took to each other at once. Alia was magnificent to look at: a mass of striking blond hair, green eyes, an irresistable smile. She arrived when I was at my lowest ebb. Within hours, she had taken me in hand, forced me to laugh about our lives, poked fun at my fears.

There was no formality between us: despite her being a Palestinian born on the West Bank, and me a politician's daughter from Vancouver; we were just two girls, sitting and giggling in her bedroom, me in jeans, she in her invariably magnificent clothes, with trunks of silk lingerie and boxes of priceless jewels scattered about the floor. She understood completely what I was talking about and comforted me: "You're lucky, don't you understand," she kept repeating. "Pierre will eventually leave politics and you'll be free. Mine is a life sentence."

More soberly, she wrote me on Oct. 17, 1974:
"I finally received your letter, as I was reading it I felt I was talking to myself.....It's not easy to find friends in our positions--if we raged and screamed everybody would think we were absolutely crazy but yet I say only people who have feelings and love in them go through this.....Don't overload your husband. Try to control yourself and when he is away, rage, break, scream and cry and get everything out. That is what I have learned to do and it has helped me and my husband.....I am scared to death too because I am afraid for his life. I have never felt so insecure as I do now because of the assasination attempts he has escaped. I only pray to God everything works out."

maryshawn · #**114** 12-16-2004, 12:51 AM

The fact I knew she was having a much harder time than I was and yet survived and kept smiling was comforting. When we went to Amman in June 1976, I found her just as exuberant but a little worried. Her extravagance and high spirits were beginning to make her enemies in Jordan and she was now frightened a monument she had planned to put up for her daughter, Haya, in the shape of a community center was getting unstuck. She had, she admitted, been rather haughty and gone ahead, sending in bulldozers. The mayor was furious and determined to put a stop to it. Alia was decidedly anxious: "I know I have produced a Crown Prince and that is something," she said to me doubtfully, "but Hussein will be so angry."

We talked, gossiped and comforted each other. We made plans to share a little London house where we could escape to holiday. She had a fantasy we would join the european jet set and decorate our Chelsea home with all the taste she complained was lacking in her modern Amman palace. She wanted to buy Georgian furniture. She was quick, she was sharp, she was witty. She made me laugh with stories of her children: She had just heard 3 year old Haya say graciously to the elder child she and KH had adopted "I am a Princess." Abir sat silent for a moment, then responded: "I am the Queen Mother." She was enormously empathetic--almost telepathically so. On my worst days, the phone would ring and invariably her voice would be on the other end...."Margaret, how ARE you?"

maryshawn · #**115** 12-16-2004, 01:12 AM

After our first meeting in 1974, Queen Alia and I became especially close. After the conference, we corresponded with each other and called frequently on the phone. When she returned on an official visit with KH, she and I would spend many happy hours gossiping on the terrace of the Cataract Hotel overlooking the Nile. Slim and elegant, a personification of the modern Arabic woman, Alia was also a good mimic. I laughed until I gasped one afternoon when she described a meal she had had with the mother of Sultan Qabus: "You must eat more. You look too thin and weak." Alia mimicked while imitating the Sultan's mother poking her in the ribs. "Eat. Eat. Eat. Then you will be healthy."

After she died, I traveled to Amman to pay my condolences to KH, who had learned I was there to see Alia's mother. On my way to the palace, we passed Alia's tomb, which the King had ordered built for his young wife where he could see it from his balcony. My sorrow increased when I entered the palace and saw a huge painting of Alia on the wall beside a portrait of the King. I found it hard to control myself and wept as the King entered the room. He looked stricken, as if he were ill. I could find no words to comfort him but he spoke haltingly to me "I know she loved you very much. We shall both miss her very much....." NOTE: KH was the only Arabic leader to write a letter of condolence upon the assasination of President Sadat. "He alone among the Arab leaders had the integrity to personally mourn the passing of a friend. Just as I had gone to Jordan after Alia's death to express condolences, he now wrote: "I send to you, and my family shares this with me, feelings of sadness at the passing of your husband. God rest his soul, into the company of his Lord who we look to. I and my family offer you the same human feelings and emotions you consoled me with personally the day the will of the Almighty was carried out and He chose to move closer to Him one from my own family.......Please accept from us our feelings of sorrow.......To God we Belong and to Him we return. Your brother, Hussein."

This passage is touching in its portrayal of Alia and KH. He did not forget Mrs. Sadat's grief at the loss of his wife and sent a letter to console her in her hour of need.

maryshawn · #**116** 12-16-2004, 01:15 AM

OK, QA said she had produced a Crown Prince. So was Ali, in fact, named such for awhile or at that time. I think they had a loving relationship but its interesting to hear her express her insecurities about how she was perceived by the people of Jordan and her husband's possible anger with her re: community center in Haya's name.

madonna23 · #**117** 12-16-2004, 01:31 AM

Thanks Mary Shawn for posting this article. It's quite interesting.

I don't believe Ali was never named crown prince although I'm sure it was consdered. A King from a Palestinian mother was certainly more desirable than a King from a British mother and Queen Zein was known to dislike the idea of a half-British King. We can never know what would have happened because the idea was thrown out the window with the arrival of Noor.

I also think the part of Haya's community center is intriguing. First off, it convinces me that all of the JRF's (not just Alia) hospitals, community centers, etc. built in their name serve the primary purpose of a monument to the JRF itself and then the purpose of providing services. It's disgraceful but it's also human so I can't criticize any one of them.

Haya's community center incident also shows Alia was not as popular as we think. We also here talk of her extravagence. But also this comes with the turf, I think. We can't expect Alia to be an angel - all humans have flaws. We also don't know how much of these perceptions were true. Anyhow, whatever Alia was like personally, I think her true appeal lay - and still lies - in her face. Somehow, whenever I see a picture of her, I get the impression that this is a very "real" woman. I can't explain it but I just don't see it in Noor or Rania. It's not their fault, of course, but don't get the same impression as when I look at Alia. There's something in her eyes, and especially in her smile, that speaks of sadness and longing and acceptance.

**Humera** · #**118** 12-16-2004, 01:38 AM

Its wierd I've never seen any pictures of this visit of Queen Alia to Canada..not even in the Canadian Press. I wonder what the Queen thought of Prime Minister Trudeau.
He was one sexy guy

**Humera** · #**119** 12-16-2004, 01:50 AM

I guess Queen Alia hoped Prince Ali would be the Crown Prince..

"I know I have produced a Crown Prince and that is something,"

It just goes to show that none of the King's wives, at least not Alia, Muna, and Noor, were so unselfish as to not wish their sons to be the next crown prince. All three had the same ambition in that respect.
Had Queen Alia been alive today, things might have been different.