Who have never heard of a Saudi royal by the name of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal? If you're not familiar with his name, let me give you a brief introduction about him. Prince Alwaleed is the nephew of the current King of Saudi Arabia and the grandson of the founding King of Saudi Arabia. He was born to Prince Talal bin Abdul-Aziz and his Lebanese wife. Although the father has been trying to push for reform in his country (andRead more
Few years ago, I wrote about a number of accomplished Khaleeji women who became the leader of their men-majority society. Inspired by this post, I decided to wrote one about Saudi women. I previously asked in that post: When will Saudi society appoint their first woman leader? The truth is that, they already did. Well, they're not quite there yet, but it's unarguably a milestone for women in Saudi Arabia. So let’s now meet some of the distinguished Saudi women…
An Enduring Love: My Life with the Shah – A Memoir is a personal account of the life of Shahbanou Farah Pahlavi, wife of the last emperor of Iran. Born in 1938 to a middle class Iranian family, queen-to-be Farah met Mohammad Reza Pahlavi Shah of Iran for the first time in Iranian Embassy in 1959 on his official visit to France. At that time, she was a student at Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture in Paris. The king, 40, wasRead more
Sheikha Lubna Al-Qasimi In November 2004, Sheikha Lubna Khalid Sultan al Qasimi became the first woman in the history of United Arab Emirates (UAE) to be appointed in a cabinet position as Minister of Economy and Planning. Sheikha Lubna graduated from the California State University with a BS degree in Computer Science and received an Executive MBA from the American University of Sharjah. I admire her not only because of her successful careers but also because she is one ofRead more
The world was stunned when King Hussein of Jordan, who was suffered from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, named his eldest son Abdullah his successor, replacing Abdullah’s half-brother Hamzah as crown prince. On 7 February 1999, Abdullah, who became a crown prince on 24 January, ascended the Jordanian throne shortly after the death of his father. His wife, then Princess Rania became the world’s youngest living queen at the age of 29. Just like her step-mother in law Queen Noor, she is knownRead more