Queen Alia Information and Pictures: Part 1


If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Status
Not open for further replies.
maryshawn said:
Roland Dallas, the highly sympathetic biographer of KH, writes Alia "suffered as a result of the King's fondness for British nannies." That, too, is sad. They were only married from 1972-1977--and he was out seeking affection or whatever you want to call it from others right there in the royal household. That's got to grate at one's self-esteem.


Well. I guess what goes around coms around.

But do you think the name change has something to do with the fact tha QA did break up the current king's mother's marriage? But it is something that she and everyone else at that time was expeting ALi to be king. Myhow things change.

I wonder why ppl were mad at her?
 
I would hope that King Abdullah (or even Princess Muna, for that matter) would not hold a grudge against QA. I'm sure it was a very, very difficult situation for all involved, but I would hope that there is another reason for the name change, and not because of what happened between Hussein, Alia, and Muna.:(
 
It would be really, really petty to change the name because of this...and if so, why now?
 
maryshawn said:
I know what you are saying, Shelley, re: Haya/Abir's recollection of QA. And perhaps it was fed to them. I know my 9 year old recalls things which happened when she was 4 or 5 which she has occasionally brought up long after I'd forgotten them. Bottom line, I'm glad they "remember" QA well.

I agree with the fact QA seemed to put family first; being Queen second; I think it shows good values. I don't think she led the easiest life. Her comments to Margaret Trudeau (documented in her book) and Jehan Sadat (in her autobiography) make it clear she loved her family very much but craved a simpler, anonymous life far away from Jordan. She talks about a house in London with simple furniture and worries about what she felt was increasing animosity toward her in Jordan. When you read comments taken from a letter she wrote shortly before her death--"I know I have produced a Crown Prince and that is something......" and then goes on to worry some of her actions have raised the ire of her husband and other officials.....well, if the fact she gave birth to Ali was the only thing she felt was of significance to those around her, it's really rather sad.

Roland Dallas, the highly sympathetic biographer of KH, writes Alia "suffered as a result of the King's fondness for British nannies." That, too, is sad. They were only married from 1972-1977--and he was out seeking affection or whatever you want to call it from others right there in the royal household. That's got to grate at one's self-esteem.

Her concern about her country's feelings toward her may very well have been the reason she felt the need to ignore the warnings and fly off to the hospital that day. Perhaps she felt she couldn't afford to let anyone down at that point. She was also a person who always gravitated toward people who needed help, according to her brother.

I wish more was known about Alia as one has to glean things from the little things written about her in other peoples' autobiographies or rely on the questionable recollections of her young children.

I'd read her father had died; are any of her siblings still around? I wonder how much contact they have--if any--with her children.


reading something like this makes you sad , what a lost , QA was a mother of three little kids , and she is gone before even knowing to say her name very well , and all of this was because she was good mother with feelings ,
i don't understand why others were mad of her ,

and what did she mean by saying I know I have produced a Crown Prince and that is something......" , is this the only important thing she did, and if it was PA suffered from this , it wasn't good thing , being a CP without mother , like being in the middle of lions carrying a piece of meat , i don't know but if QA feels what is going on , i think she would ripped her grave to protect her children ,

 
A Portrait of QA by Margaret Trudeau

The following excerpts are from Margaret Trudeau's book "Beyond Reason":

I made a few intimate friends, with whom I could laugh about official life and briefly forget how much of a prisoner I was. The closest of these was Queen Alia of Jordan.

I met her and King Hussein for the first time when they came to Ottawa for an official visit, immediately after the 1974 election. We took to each other at once. Alia was magnificent to look at: a mass of striking blonde 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 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 my jeans, her in her invariably magnificent clothes with trunks of silk lingeria and boxes of priceless jewels scattered about the floor. The fact she understood what I was talking about was enough to comfort 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 to me on October 17, 1974:

"Dearest Margaret, I finally received your letter, as I was reading it I felt I was talking to myself....it's not easy to find friends, especially in our positions--if we raged and screamed everyone would think we were absolutely crazy and yet I say only people who have feelings and love in them go through this....

Don't overload Pierre. 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 because I am afraid for his life. I have never felt so insecure in my life as I do now because as you might know how many assasination attempts he has escaped. I only pray to God everything works out."

These were brave words. The fact I knew she was having a much harder time than I was and kept smiling also made my sentence easier to bear. 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 that a plan she had had to put up a monument to her daughter, Haya in the shape of a community center on a prime plot in the city was coming unglued. She had been rather haughty and sent in the bulldozers without permission and the mayor was furious and determined to put a stop to it. "I know I have produced a Crown Prince, and that is something," she said to me doubtfully, "but Hussein will be so angry."

Once again, we talked, we gossiped, we comforted each other. We even made plans to share a little London house where we could escape for holidays together. 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 Amman palace. She was quick, she was sharp, she was witty. She made me laugh with her stories. I remember she told me that she had just overheard Haya, than three years old, say graciously to the elder child she and Hussein had adopted, "I am a Princess." The girl had sat silent for a moment, then replied gravely "I am the Queen Mother."

Our friendship was cemented by the marvelous present of cameras she gave me.......I saw her far too seldom but it was enough to know she was there. Our relationship became almost telepathic. On the days I was most depressed, the phone almost always rang: "Margaret, are you all right?"
 
And, yes, I wonder at the timing of the renaming of the QA Fund for Social Development. Suffice to say, I don't think it would have happened on KH's watch. There just seems to be no good reason for it to happen.........Like she's being erased from the scene once and for all. As the UAE gives a lot of aid to Jordan, I wonder what Princess Haya thinks of all of this......Very unfortunate.
 
Queen Noor with Haya, Ali and Hamzah

Early on, QN with two of QA's children and a newborn Hamzah.
 

Attachments

  • a4.jpg
    a4.jpg
    27.9 KB · Views: 1,369
Queen Alia and her mother

QA and her mother at a function a year before QA's death.
 

Attachments

  • alia with her mother hanan.jpg
    alia with her mother hanan.jpg
    17.1 KB · Views: 1,526
Last edited:
A few more of Alia. Dancing with Gerald Ford, official engagements and informal portrait at a meeting.
 

Attachments

  • pict_dnBdYHFnYWU1Ojg4PCthYXZjY2VxKDliemNoNGZza21FDhAVEANVUVFbFxgeHh4BR1JG.jpg
    pict_dnBdYHFnYWU1Ojg4PCthYXZjY2VxKDliemNoNGZza21FDhAVEANVUVFbFxgeHh4BR1JG.jpg
    5.2 KB · Views: 1,755
  • qaliaford.jpg
    qaliaford.jpg
    21.6 KB · Views: 899
  • pict_dnBdYHFnYWU1Ojg5OythYXZjY2VxKDliemNoNGZza21FDhAVEANVUVFbFxgeHxkBR1JG.jpg
    pict_dnBdYHFnYWU1Ojg5OythYXZjY2VxKDliemNoNGZza21FDhAVEANVUVFbFxgeHxkBR1JG.jpg
    5.3 KB · Views: 1,755
  • pict_dnBdYHFnYWU1Ojg7PCthYXZjY2VxKDliemNoNGZza21FDhAVEANVUVFbFxgeHR4BR1JG.jpg
    pict_dnBdYHFnYWU1Ojg7PCthYXZjY2VxKDliemNoNGZza21FDhAVEANVUVFbFxgeHR4BR1JG.jpg
    4 KB · Views: 1,762
Queen Alia in Autographed Portrait 1976

I happen to love this photo:
 

Attachments

  • qaliablue.jpg
    qaliablue.jpg
    26.3 KB · Views: 7,920
In the Margaret Treadeau memoir does she talk about when QA died?
 
Yes, she says she was at a cocktail reception when someone came up and said "have you heard the news? Hussein's wife, Alia, has been killed in a helicopter crash." She said she went numb and later credited it partially with her decision to leave her marriage--saying "the death of Alia made a mockery of the relationship with my husband." She also was more than a bit angry that her husband had been briefed on the issue yet left a stranger to tell her at a public ceremony. Essentially, she felt a lot of dreams she had died with the loss of her close friend.
 
Thank you; it's one of my personal favorites. She really is a striking woman; I liked Margaret Trudeau's description of her as having an "irresistable smile." I think she really does. She also never looks contrived or superficial. Despite her concerns and troubles, I get the sense she was very much comfortable in her own skin and had a genuinely good heart.:)
suria said:
She is amazing , i loved this photo a lot thanks alot
 
maryshawn said:
Thank you; it's one of my personal favorites. She really is a striking woman; I liked Margaret Trudeau's description of her as having an "irresistable smile." I think she really does. She also never looks contrived or superficial. Despite her concerns and troubles, I get the sense she was very much comfortable in her own skin and had a genuinely good heart.:)


yes , irresistible smile , very nice description , what makes QA special is her inner , she had a good heart , and this is reflected on her face , with this smile who can not like her , even if i don't know her and looked to this photo i will believe that she was a great mother and a beautiful lady
 
tipper said:
Is it true that QN, in her bio- Leap of faith- writes that Q Alia was killed by some1 who was following Q Zein's orders? I have surely read the book, but can't recall Q Noor ever wrote it, it seems quite far fetched, and QN would have never writen something like that about her mother in law. I also read that Alia was killed as her roots were PAL, and ali was mistreated as he also had, through his late mum, PAL origins- ?????????? PS- in which way was Ali mistreated ? Never heard this be4e, does any1 know anything about these stories ?:confused: :cool: :confused: :confused:

Queen Noor never said that in her book,she only said there were rumors goin' in the country that QZ organized the whole accident to get rid of Alia,but they are JUST rumors.
 
shelley said:
Abir Muhseian's father was a Jordanian/Palestinian. He was a driver in the army, maybe even in the royal palaces, I am not sure. I believe an attempt was made for him to keep seeing Abir in the beginning but as she got older, the poor girl could not cope with the huge contrasts between her real and adopted family, and so the contact eventually ceased.

Al-muhaisen are Jordanians as far as I know.
 
i
suria said:
yes , irresistible smile , very nice description , what makes QA special is her inner , she had a good heart , and this is reflected on her face , with this smile who can not like her , even if i don't know her and looked to this photo i will believe that she was a great mother and a beautiful lady
I agree with you ,she was loved a lot by her people and she was a great queen.I love her too.
 
I once happened across an article--and am so mad at myself for not saving it--where friends of QA spoke of her shortly after her death. I recall it was a very warm piece and it was obvious her friends were deeply moved by QA and loved her a lot. One said even though QA was a Queen "she still was the one you could count on if you were troubled" and "if she hadn't heard from me for awhile, inevitably the phone would ring just to find out how I was doing." I thought that was very nice. I remember another woman saying she was the type who won people over very easily and "practically bounded into a room exuding enthusiasm and friendliness." Others said she was a good "counselor and listener," "never put on airs," and "went out of her way to put people at ease." This all kind of fits with her brother's portrayal of her in KH's biography by Roland Dallas where he said pretty much the same things and added something about "dinners always being interesting at our home because Alia was forever bringing people with problems along with her." Anyway, the article with her friends just struck me as such an appropriate piece. It didn't try to portray her as a saint; just was a very real account of a very real, natural, kind person. QN was lauded by KH for always putting on a good face no matter how she was suffering inside. QA took that one step further as it seemed she was always capable of setting aside her problems and really focused on others. She's one of the few people I read about I wish I had actually known.
 
I found the photo of QA with her mum on the Net, the caption read that was taken only 2 days before QA's death, not a year before, so that was the last time Hanan saw her daughter.
 
Hanan is QA's mom? So sad.
 
Reina said:
Hanan is QA's mom? So sad.

Yes Hanan Toukan is the mother of Queen Alia.
 
I want to know 2 things???
Did KHussein has a romance with QNoor when he was with QAlia???
If QAlia not died, was KHussein married with QNoor???
 
Iman said:
I want to know 2 things???
Did KHussein has a romance with QNoor when he was with QAlia???
If QAlia not died, was KHussein married with QNoor???
What i think is had Queen Alia lived there would never be anyone else ,the people loved her ,and the King adored her ,and he once commented that she was the love of his life .
 
Q Noor (or as she was then known, Lisa Halaby) never met Hussein until about a year after Alia's death. If Alia had lived I'm pretty sure Hussein would have stayed married to her for several more years-they seemed very much in love, and she was also apparently very well-liked among the Jordanian people. But fate had other plans.
 
Iman said:
I want to know 2 things???
Did KHussein has a romance with QNoor when he was with QAlia???
If QAlia not died, was KHussein married with QNoor???


according to my knowledge QN was working at Alia airport when KH was married to QA and they knew each other before QA's death , and after her death QN entered KH house to take care of his kids , then people start talking a bout the king relationship with QN so he married her , this is what i have heard here in Jordan


I don’t think KH would marry anyone if QA was alive, she was very popular and loved in Jordan among Jordanian and Palestinian , and they loved each other so why he would marry

 
There has been much speculation over when KH and QN met and they did meet officially at a formal welcoming celebration at the airport sometime in 1976 when the first jumbo jet joined ALIA, the Royal Jordanian Airline, fleet. Najeeb Halaby--Lisa Halaby's father--was a consultant to ALIA and was there and invited his daughter who was working in Tehran at the time. I once posted a shot of all of them together and QN wrote that she met QA at this occasion in her book.


KH referred often to QA as his "greatest love." And they seemed well suited for one another as they had similar interests, loved being parents, he obviously was besotted with her looks as she was very pretty, and she was jordanian/palestinian so there was none of the "outsider" or language issue KH had with his marriages to Princess Muna and Queen Noor. She also had a very endearing personality--by many accounts; Barbara Bush, Margaret Trudeau, Jehan Sadat and others all mention her in their autobiographies as a very warm, kind, intelligent and very lovely woman with a great sense of humor.

The whole issue of the quick courtship of QN the year after QA's death has always been one people have found curious. I think KH was so devastated by QA's death he simply had a hard time being alone. He tried to reach out to one american journalist, chronicaled in another article I've posted here called "The King and I," and QN wrote in her book there was an english photographer who was very upset when QN entered the picture. Apparently, according to QN, this photographer had been introduced to the King through friends and she insinuates the woman likely was hoping there was a long-term future with KH.

I would like to think that had fate decided otherwise, KH would've stayed married to QA--and not just for a few more years. I saw some rare videotape of the two of them together on a documentary aired ages ago and they look so happy with one another. He just grinned at her continually and she kept looking at him with this kind of shy, beautiful smile. OK, I'm a romantic--but they looked so great together and I think they really complemented one another!
 
Wait so that journalist really did want to be with him. But maybe it was another journalist. Isn't te journalist from 'The King and I' American?
 
The one who wrote "The King and I" expresses some regret she decided to pack her things and go home after her time with KH and his sending an assistant over to her hotel extending an invitation to stay on. No, the journalist QN refers to is another who she doesn't identify by name. They have to be different as the one who wrote "The King and I" was American and QN says the other was British. The British photojournalist was in Aqaba for a long weekend party when Lisa Halaby was there and Lisa was later told the woman was very unhappy Lisa had been asked to join the group--though QN writes she was oblivious to this woman's hostile attitude until someone brought it to her attention. She had thought it was all about how she saw so many people wanting KH's attention but, in this case, the photojournalist seemed to think she had a chance with KH in terms of a relationship until she saw Lisa there.
 
sommone said:
Yes, thanks Laila. Would someone be kind enough to translate this for those who don't read or speak arabic, please.

From what I could understand within the text, it commemorates the 28th anniversary of Queen Alia's passing. Then it continues to give a consise edition of her resume.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom