Queen Rania Of Jordan Is Number One From The Arab World On Twitter

By ZINA MOUKHEIBER

Image via Wikipedia

Two royals, a revolutionary, an intellectual who tweets about the revolution, and a misplaced pop star in-between make up the top five Arab tweeters. Queen Rania, the Palestinian wife of Jordan’s King Abdullah II counts 1,509,885 followers on Twitter, making her by far the most popular Arab tweeter, according to Arabian Business–a Dubai-based publication. Trailing way behind is the husband of her half-sister-in-law, Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum with 393,281 followers. Wael Ghonim, the now ex-Google exec who helped organize the Egyptian uprising ranks number 4, with 147,864 followers, behind Lebanese-American pop star Mika of “Grace Kelly” fame. (Technically I wouldn’t put him on that list, since his mother who’s Lebanese can’t pass on her nationality because of retarded laws in the country; plus he doesn’t sing in Arabic). The intellectual is the insightful commentator Sultan Al Qassemi from the United Arab Emirates. He, of course, tweeted about the ranking. I’m betting that Ghonim will catch up with the royals. Queen Rania is also #76 on the Forbes list of the 100 Most Powerful Women.
Despite her social media savviness, the Queen is more popular outside of Jordan, where 36 tribal leaders recently compared her to Leila Ben Ali, the profligate and nepotistical wife of the deposed Tunisian leader. In a daring letter to the King, they accused her of meddling in state matters and bestowing property to her family.
“We call on the King to return to the treasury land and farms given to the Yassin family. The land belongs to the Jordanian people,” they said. “We still have loyalty to the Hashemite throne, but we believe that King Abdullah should stop his wife and her family from abuse. Otherwise, the throne might be in danger.” They also criticized her for throwing this past September a lavish 40th birthday party (which set tongues wagging in Jordan) in Wadi Rum, a touristic destination in the southern part of the country.  They fretted over “the party’s colossal cost … at the expense of the treasury and the poor.”
The articulate Rania who describes herself in her Twitter bio as a “A mum and a wife with a really cool day job…” has veered mostly away in her tweets from the political upheavals engulfing the Middle East. She does tweet her support for her husband’s stated commitment for reform. On March 29, using the hashtag WeAreAllJo, she wrote: “His Majesty: We don’t fear reform & will respect Dialogue committee’s recommendations on amendments related 2 parliamentary life.” And again: “His Majesty: Vandalism and chaos are rejected and a red line.” But she was silent on March 25 when clashes between government supporters and protesters calling for a constitutional monarchy left more than 100 injured. Regarding Egypt, she tweeted once: ”Egypt where I spent my university years. May you be blessed with security & prosperity for all in this new era.”  Same diplomatic tweet for Tunisia: “Closely watching developments in #Tunisia and praying for stability and calm for its people.”