Here's another interview QN did in 1996 for the Daily Telegraph:
Issue 563 The DailyTelegraph
Saturday 7 December 1996
Queen as working girl - PART 1
Queen Noor of Jordan has achieved the improbable - she's a dutiful Arab wife who says what she thinks. But the former Sixties radical admits to Helena de Bertodano that it wasn't easy at first
A FEW years ago, as Queen Noor was racing out of her Washington hotel to give her first political speech, the phone rang. "It was my husband. He said: 'I've just realised the position I've put you in and I've taken a Valium.' And for the first time I got very nervous because I thought: 'My goodness, if he's feeling nervous. . .' "
The speech, at Georgetown University, was a success, if a surprise. "It went down as a bit of a shock because the assumption was I would be talking about fluff - The Washington Post sent a style section reporter to cover it."
Since that day, Queen Noor has assumed an increasingly political role, becoming a spokeswoman in the maelstrom of the Middle East for the tiny desert Hashemite kingdom she adopted upon her marriage to King Hussein of Jordan in 1978. She has sought to prove herself as hardworking and serious, fighting to correct the original tabloid impression of her, as she puts it, as an "imperious, frivolous, irresponsible jet-setter".
Last week she was in England to address the Cambridge Union on the Middle East peace process. Dressed in a severe pinstripe trouser-suit, it was clear she meant business. Her speech was articulate, even entertaining at times, and she coped well with the questions - some of them tortuous - put to her by the undergraduates.
The role of Queen Noor al-Hussein (her name means "Light of Hussein") is unprecedented in every way. As the first American-born queen of an Arab Muslim country, she has shared some of the duties of her husband to an extent unheard-of in the region and even elsewhere in the world. "At that time you wouldn't have found any other non-elected wife of a head of state speaking out on any of the political issues that [my husband] has encouraged me to speak out on. . . The only person who has really come close is Mrs Clinton."
Although the Jordanian royal family prides itself on its accessibility, this does not necessarily include the media. Organising an interview with Queen Noor is a complicated business - partly because she is surrounded by the usual hullabaloo of royal protocol and partly because she is so busy.
After weeks of negotiation, I had arranged to interview her during her visit to England. My questions were vetted through several stages - I was strongly encouraged not to ask anything of a personal nature - and I was interviewed at length by her press secretary. Hoping that the Queen herself would be more relaxed, I had gone along with the process.
The morning of the proposed meeting dawned and still I had no idea when, where, or even whether, it would take place. Eventually the phone rang and I was told to get myself to a central London hotel where a car would collect me and take me to Her Majesty's house in the country - on one condition. For security reasons, on no account was I to reveal where her house was located or anything about it - not its shape, its colour or anything about its internal decoration. "You can say it's in England if you like," her press officer said.
On our arrival the photographer, his assistant and I are hurried through the building into a spacious sitting-room. It is 11.30am and we are told that Her Majesty will greet us at noon. We are left with a bowl of nuts and some Arabic coffee. Midday passes, then 1pm then 1.30. Various characters drift in and out.
After two hours, we have registered every detail of the room but are reminded once again to reveal nothing. "Can I just say there's a xxxxx?" I ask the press officer. "No," she says. "Can I say 'Her Majesty sat on a sofa' - if she does?" Permission is granted.
Eventually, soon after 1.30, Her Majesty slips unobtrusively into the room through a side door. No one accompanies her. Dressed in a pistachio-coloured soft-wool twinset, knee-length skirt and high heels, she is slim and elegant with firmly lacquered hair, these days of a darker blonde. She is effusively apologetic. "My son arrived from the United States at five in the morning for a small break from school," she says, in her strong American accent. "He was just beginning to surface from his jet-lag when you arrived and I thought you would probably understand that I would want to start the day with him. . . "We move to the table - not the sofa - for the interview. A silent minion delivers pineapple juice and a plate of raw vegetables. Instead of insisting on the list of prepared questions, Queen Noor allows a normal conversation, focusing on her work but also permitting discussion of her family and her feelings.
Only 26 at her marriage, she inherited eight stepchildren and a way fo life that was completely alien to her. I ask her how she managed to adapt: "I didn't think about it too much. I followed my instincts and my husband showed enormous confidence in me and just set me free. On occasion, in the early days, I would seek out a little bit of guidance and he would say: 'I have complete trust in you.' "I suggest to her that this may be the best way of learning; she looks slightly doubtful. "It's a rough way of learning because you learn everything on your own in the hard way and, in my case, there was no structure and no guidance, and no very specific and rigid code of conduct or protocol. . . I began by establishing an office just after I married. Having always been a working woman, it seemed to be a natural and logical first step. But it was unheard-of."
Although much is made of her all-American upbringing, the former Lisa Halaby does, in fact, have Arab roots. Her father, who served in the Kennedy Administration and is the former President of Pan American World Airways, is of Syrian descent. Because of the nature of his work, the family moved often as Lisa, the eldest of three children, was growing up.
"We were a relatively normal, moderately dysfunctional late-20th-century family. We were not terribly, terribly close. On the other hand we were not the other extreme either. Because there were so many moves and changes in our lives, we learned to adapt in different ways. . . I had to become self-reliant, I had to be able to move between different communities and to fall back on my own individual resources. . . I grew up with a very strong set of values and work ethic."
Her childhood imbued her with a resilience that has served her well in subsequent years. Intelligent and independent, she passionately espoused the causes of her time, demonstrating against the Vietnam War and marching with Martin Luther King.
After her graduation from Princeton University, where she studied architecture and urban planning, she left the United States, first to work for an architectural firm in Australia and then for a British firm which was re-planning the city of Teheran. "I had a rich and diverse working experience before I married. . . so when I began my life with my husband and his family, I already had an identity of my own. . . I could feel secure in myself and not dependent and helpless."
She met King Hussein, who had ruled the kingdom since she was one year old, while working in Jordan on a blueprint for an Arab air university. His third wife, Queen Alia, beloved to the king and the country, had recently been killed in an air crash, and at first her replacement was viewed with some suspicion. Seemingly overconfident, Queen Noor was criticised by the more conservative elements of Jordanian society. I ask her if she responded by just getting on with the job in hand, realising that she could not please everyone all the time?
"Yes," she laughs. "I've actually said it in those words, sometimes even a little bit more colourfully."
Nevertheless, I prompt, she must have found it all very isolating at times. "I was used to being on my own and that was excellent preparation, because otherwise I could have felt very isolated and very cut-off and even under siege at times. . . "