This remarkable story started very far from Malaysia, in the UN mission to help the decolonizing former Belgian Congo in 1960. This difficult task involved the army of Malaya, an independent country since only three years earlier, and the prime minister, a huge supporter of football, asked for help: "Aware of our young nation’s limited financial resources, Tunku appealed to ordinary Malayans to embark on fund raising efforts in support of the MSF’s peacekeeping effort in Congo. "Among those who answered Tunku’s clarion call were Perak nurses from the Ipoh General Hospital and the Ulu Kinta Central Mental Hospital in Tanjung Rambutan. They stepped forward to form what was to become our nation’s first women’s football team." - (New Straits Times) Ipoh city, in the state of Perak - (Su Siock Ching, cc-by-sa) Alongside Perak in western Malaysia, women's teams in other states quickly gained popularity, and the matches and tournaments for charity raised more money than men's games often took in. Malaya and its borders continued to fluctuate and soon became Malaysia, while the women's teams of Perak, Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan took part in international tournaments in Singapore from 1967, and this led to much bigger things. "In 1965, the Malaysian women's national football team under the leadership of Tun Sharifah Rodziah Syed Alwi Barakbah, the wife of the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, held a series of friendly matches in Hong Kong and won all three matches played. "The Asian Ladies' Football Confederation (ALFC) was established in 1968 in Hong Kong with Malaysia among its founders. Tun Sharifah Rodziah was also appointed as the President of ALFC, while Veronica Chiu from Hong Kong was its Vice President. "The Women's Football Association of Malaysia (PBWM) was established and officially registered in December 1974 with Tun Sharifah Rodziah as President and Datin Teoh Chye Hin as Secretary." - (Kita Reporters / Archive) In the continental championships of the ALFC, Malaysia won fourth place (1975) and finally Asia's third place (1983) with several players from Perak. That state's football association was built in the 1960s by its first two presidents, Kamsiah Ibrahim and Teoh Chye Hin: - "Birth of our women's football team" - (New Straits Times, Alan Teh Leam Seng / Archive) On the field, Perak and Malaysia had their longtime right winger Kasmah Darus, who sadly died in November 2021, aged 62. Two more stars of the Malaysia national team from that era were strikers Rachel Gomez and Normala Rashid, who both still work today to train future players: - "Passing The Torch For The Love Of Malaysian Women’s Football" - (Leaderonomics, Lydia Gomez / Archive) "KASMAH Darus (second from left) holds a reunion of former national women's football teammates in 2013. - Photo credit: NR" - (Kita Reporters / Archive)