Queen Rania, Other Powerful Women Raise Maternal Health Awareness

The Queen of Jordan was among 100 of the world’s most well-known and influential women dining at an ritzy Japanese restaurant Tao, in New York last night. They arrived wearing lovely dresses and ate rich Japanese cuisine throughout the night.

But the women were not just there to socialize or to enjoy the rich life.

They were there to promote the health of expectant mothers in developing countries. The dinner was T for the White Ribbon Alliance and Safe Motherhood, the charity that is committed to promoting maternal health and reducing infant mortality.

Besides Queen Rania being in attendance, there was Sarah Brown, the wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Wendi Deng Murdoch, the wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, model activist Elle MacPherson, and – to everyone’s surprise – Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate.

The night was dedicated to a discussion on how to reach the goal of the United Nations Millennium Project: to reduce the worldwide maternal mortality rate 75 percent by the year 2015.

Murdoch told the story of how her own mother died in childbirth, while Queen Rania called maternal morality a taboo subject, “If we cannot improve quality of women’s lives, how about their death?” she asked.

The UN estimates that in 2005, a woman died every minute of complications related to pregnancy and childbirth – more than 500,000 women a year.

Almost all of these women, 99 per cent, live and die in developing countries, the UN says.