PUTRAJAYA: Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah and Raja Permaisuri Agong Tunku Hajah Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah today graced the 30th edition of the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) Triennial World Conference 2023 here.
Al-Sultan Abdullah also beat the traditional gong five times as symbolic of the launching ceremony.
The Regent of Pahang Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Alam Shah Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah was in attendance.
Also present were Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
In her address, Tunku Azizah who is also Pahang Women’s Institute (WI) president, shared her journey with ACWW which she started being actively involved with in 2004.
Her Majesty said she had attended the 24th Triennial World Conference in Tasmania in 2004, Finland in 2007, the United States in 2010, Chennai, India in 2013, Warwick, United Kingdom in 2016 and Melbourne, Australia in 2019.
“ACWW had also brought me to seminars in UNESCO Paris and the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women held yearly in New York,” she said.
Tunku Azizah said at the 2019 conference in Melbourne, she was nominated for the post of world president but had withdrawn her nomination as she assumed the position of Raja Permaisuri Agong.
“I thanked the Country Women Association of New South Wales of Australia for nominating me to contest for the post of World President at the Triennial World Conference in Melbourne at that time,” said Tunku Azizah.
In welcoming the participants to Malaysia, Her Majesty said she hoped they would enjoy the conference and the sideline activities including a visit to the Department of Orang Asli Development (Jakoa) Complex in Gombak; Forestry Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) in Kepong; and the National Craft Institute in Rawang.
“I hope you will have an enjoyable stay in my beautiful country Malaysia. We tried to incorporate and showcase the diversity of our culture, cuisine, handicrafts, places of interest for the day trips and spouse programme to enable all of you to experience Malaysia,” she said.
ACWW was founded in 1929 to bring together rural women and their organisations across the globe. It seeks to address the challenges they face because of their communities’ isolation, discrimination against women, and their lack of standing in political processes.
ACWW’s membership spans 82 countries, and since 1947, the association had passed over 180 policy resolutions by popular vote.
This year’s conference, which gathers about 500 ACWW members from around the world, runs from May 17 to 25. – BERNAMA
