KUALA LUMPUR: When identical twins marry identical twins, confusion about their identities is often inevitable in the early stages of marriage.
This was the case for identical twins Harlina and Haryati Shamsudin and their respective husbands, also identical twins Shazli Rifa'at Ghazali and Associate Professor Dr Shazli Ezzat Ghazali, when they first married in 1999.
Harlina, who is a nurse at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Health Centre, said in the early days of their marriages, mistakes were common.
"If you don't look at their faces or view them from behind or from the side, Haryati was the one who often got confused.
"This was due to their similar body shapes and identical hairstyles. However, now can easily tell the difference—mainly because my brother-in-law wears glasses," she said.
Harlina and Shazli Rifa'at have four children.
Haryati, who is also a nurse at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Health Centre, and Shazli Ezzat, a senior lecturer at UKM's Faculty of Health Sciences for Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Health Programme also have four children.
The story of their marriages was first reported by Harian Metro on Sept 6, 1999.
Harlina added that even their children used to get their identities mixed up.
Shazli Ezzat said the confusion extended to their families as well, and he even shared with his students that he had a twin and that both of them married twins.
As for how the marriage came about, Shazli Ezzat said it was an arrangement made by his late mother, Noor Aini Baba, in 1998.
Since childhood, his mother had envisioned having twin daughters-in-law.
"The idea first came to her when she saw the twins attending my sister's wedding.
"From that moment, my mother quietly began making plans, including meeting the parents of our future wives," he said.