KUALA LUMPUR: Raja Permaisuri Agong, Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah recently opened up about her journey into motherhood.
In an interview with The Telegraph, published on April 24, the Queen shared her struggle to conceive after she tied the knot with Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah in 1986.
"I had 16 rounds of IVF, and on the 17th I succeeded.
"I never thought I'd go on to have five more [children], including twins," she was quoted as saying.
Her Majesty set up the Tunku Azizah Fertility Foundation (TAFF) in 2004 that has sponsored fertility treatments ever since.
Tunku Azizah, 61, shared that her foundation sponsors treatment for poor and middle-income couples.
"I know how much it costs, and the emotional struggle people go through. You go for a treatment and you come home and cry.
"We are Asian and we don't share our problems. But I decided it was time we started talking about it, and doing something about it," she told The Telegraph.
This was, however, not the first time where the Queen had shared her struggle of becoming a mother.
In October 2019, during the TAFF's 15th anniversary, Tunku Azizah had shared that in the span of nine-and-a-half years, she went through 16 treatments in Singapore, England and the United States.
"Only mothers with the same predicament will know what we went through, the longing for a baby. Other women are lucky to have children naturally, but we are tested this way, (so) we never give up, and TAFF was formed to help (such) mothers, financially and by way of continuous support," she had said.
The Telegraph met with Tunku Azizah when she was in London to talk about textiles.
As part of London Craft Week, which will take place from May 9 to May 15, the article reported that an exhibition at the High Commission of Malaysia, London will showcase the traditional Royal Pahang Silk Weave.
This, it said was a craft that the Queen has been instrumental in reviving.
"In 2005, when her initiative began, there were only 15 weavers left with the skills for the complex and time-consuming processes involved in creating these special textiles with their 300-year history.
"Now, thanks to the Queen, there are 167 weavers. Some have been trained in a special school she established, to which anyone aged 18 to 35 can apply - provided they have the ambition to immerse themselves in such exacting craft. Students also learn English and maths, are housed, fed and given pocket money," the report read.
It was reported that some of the artisans had even picked up the skills in prison as part of a programme.
