‘I always find that, with women, if you empower them a little bit, they lift everyone around them. Education for girls is the best investment you can make, because the ripple effect affects so many issues – health, child mortality, economic empowerment all benefit when you give girls an education.’
Queen Rania
Once upon a time…
… Queen Rania of Jordan sat down and wrote a story.
Sometimes, you are hit so hard and fast by a jolt of inspiration that you have to sit down right away and scribble down the story so that it can never be forgotten. That is exactly what happened to Queen Rania. She had met a young woman, who told her about many great obstacles she had had to overcome to earn an education, and Queen Rania knew instantly it was a story that needed to be told.
Children sigh all over the world at the idea of going to school. But Queen Rania wanted to show children that education was the most powerful tool of all. It brought tolerance and love; inspired confidence and respect. It transformed and empowered communities and, in turn, the world. To be able to learn was a gift. And Queen Rania wanted more than anything to make it an unquestionable human right.
So, she sat down at her desk and wrote a story about Maha of the Mountains, a courageous girl determined to go to school even though she has to walk miles down a desert road and face anger from people in her village, who do not believe girls should be educated. But Maha doesn’t give up.
Children in classrooms read the queen’s story.
Queen Rania renovated more than 500 schools in Jordan, launched scholarship programmes and literacy initiatives. She travelled all over the world advocating for the right of every child on the planet to go to school, so that someday they might have all the tools they need to tell their own story.