KUALA LUMPUR: The success of Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah's prison arts and craft programme has caught the attention of Singapore and Abu Dhabi.
Both countries now want Tunku Azizah to start a similar programme there.
"When I was in Abu Dhabi, UAE president Sheikh Zayed Sultan Al Nahyan's mother, Sheikha Fatima asked that I start a similar programme for women there. I will be holding an online meeting with them this week to discuss the Abu Dhabi project.
"The Singapore prime minister's wife told me that she was interested in a programme for the prison during the state visit to the republic," she said.
Tunku Azizah, who is the royal patron of the Prison Arts and Crafts Malaysia, has been promoting the prison's arts and craft programme at the global level during foreign state visits.
Last year, she brought the Tenun Pahang Diraja, woven by the inmates of Bentong and Penor prisons in Pahang, to the London Craft Week. She also took along a former inmate, Md Ghafawi Mat Said, to demonstrate the art of weaving the Tenun Pahang diraja during the exhibition.
Besides the Bentong and Penor prisons in Pahang, the Puncak Borneo Prison Complex has also started a weaving programme following Sarawak Premier's wife Puan Sri Datuk Amar Juma'ani Tun Tuanku Bujang's visit to the Tenun Pahang Diraja's weaving workshop at the Bentong Prison in 2019.
The Bentong and Penor prisons are now training some 200 inmates on weaving the Tenun Pahang Diraja.
