LONDON, England (CNN) -- Beautiful and intelligent, and balancing a modern outlook with a deep concern for her people, Jordan's Queen Rania seems in many ways to represent the optimistic face of the Middle East's future. Not just a pretty face: Queen Rania has used her position to fight for better education for Jordanian youth. Since she entered the spotlight after she married then Prince Abdullah in 1993, she has become known for her philanthropic work, pushing for better educational facilities for Jordan's school children and supporting efforts to empower women. Feted by the West (she has been interviewed countless times, including a half-hour appearance on Oprah), she was named the third most beautiful woman in the world by Harpers and Queen magazine in 2005.
@highlight
Queen Rania married in to the Jordanian royal family in 1993
@highlight
She has attracted wide attention because of her beauty and charity work
@highlight
She has also used her position to call for greater understanding of Islam in the west
@highlight
Her husband's government has faced criticism over Jordan's human rights record
To a large extent @placeholder remains a paradox -- a symbol of the contradictions that still blight the region as it tries to come to terms with modernity.
Yet Jordan's own human rights record under the stewardship of her husband @placeholder has hardly been exemplary, and has included accusations of terrorist suspects being tortured, harsh laws to clamp down on public dissent and the arrest without trial of critics of the government.