For five years Dr Wan Azizah Ismail's husband, Anwar Ibrahim, was deputy prime minister of Malaysia and widely expected to take over the mantle of power from long-time leader Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Then in 1998 came Anwar's unceremonious fall from political favour, followed by a long jail sentence for corruption and sodomy. The first few uncertain weeks after his arrest, when Anwar was detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and denied access to lawyers and family, plunged Azizah into the lowest ebb of her life.
Now, Anwar is again fighting to clear his name in a new sodomy case. The odds continue to be stacked against the couple. And Azizah continues to stand by her husband, certain of his innocence and fidelity.
To Azizah, her husband's treatment 13 years ago was symptomatic of a deep political malaise.
'When you are the one outside of the system, you find out all the flaws. If it can happen to Anwar, as former deputy prime minister, it can happen to anyone,' she said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
Azizah, a medical doctor and lecturer in ophthalmology, felt this had to be changed for her children and future generations. And so, the 'low-profile' wife of Anwar - people 'hardly knew what she looked like', she said - found herself thrust into the forefront of Malaysia's tumultuous political fray.