Jordan IX

One final thing I must add about this country: I think I quite like the king. Not that I got to meet him or anything, but I think I will indeed be writing him a fan letter when I get home. I certainly do not envy him at all, however; I think he has one of the crappiest and suckiest job in the world. King Abdullah is married to Queen Rania, who is drop-dead gorgeous, and they've got four beautiful kids. He ascended to the throne in 1999, after his father, King Hussein, announced that he would take the throne two days before his death (This was quite a surprise, as King Abdullah is not the first born son, nor even a son of King Hussein's first wife). The King was actually brought to the USA for high school, and did his undergraduate studies at Brown. He then went onto Sandhurst Academy in the UK for further military training, so he's quite an educated man. Furthermore, he spent most of his formative years being exposed to ideas in Western culture such as freedom of speech, gender equity, freedom of religion and expression, and religious tolerance. I believe his intent was to continue living abroad, until he got called to the throne.
And this is where I do not envy his job AT ALL: Jordan is a constitutional monarchy, that is to say, though he is king, and though they say the king does have veto power, and they say he does have the power to institute laws without Parliament's approval, this actually does not happen, and unfortunately, the king must be able to have enough political clout to have Parliament vote his way. King Abdullah has been a wise king, but his hands have been tied by the conservative and fundamentalist Parliament. For example, he has been trying to abolish the law allowing honour killings (can you imagine? Honour killings are still LEGAL here!), but he has been blocked by the Parliament (can you imagine? Still blocking that legislation in the 21st century??). Twenty years ago, it was rare to see a women in Jordan wearing the hijab, and now, it is exceedingly common to wear coverings, even to the niqab and the chador. This was a result of King Hussein having to bow to religious pressure in Parliament to allow fundamentalists and conservatives to run the educational system twenty years prior. Prior to this, children were in co-ed schools, and were following the British schooling system with emphasis on the International Baccalaureate. Now, it's just religious hodge-podge.
I can imagine life here would be quite different for a lot of people, and for the better, if King Abdullah were actually allowed to rule like a monarch. I think with other things that I've been told about the King, I think he's a good guy, in a tough place, with incredible vision that he's not allowed to fly with...