Kuala Lumpur: The government should make reciting a prayer standard practice before each commercial flight takes off, as part of a shariah-compliant policy for airlines, an opposition MP has suggested.
Shaharizukirnain Abdul Kadir (PN-Setiu) said previously the transport ministry had accepted the idea of shariah-compliant flights, but it was merely a suggestion and airlines were under no obligation to implement it.
“A standard policy should be suggested to airlines, such as reciting a prayer before each flight, informing passengers about prayer times, and allowing full freedom for Muslim female employees to cover their ‘aurat’,” Shaharizukirnain said when debating the Supply Bill 2023 at the committee level in the Dewan Rakyat.
In March, transport minister Loke Siew Fook said the government had no issue or objection to any airline establishing standard operating procedures for flights based on shariah compliance.
However, Loke said that introducing any such policy would be at the discretion of the airlines.
PAS MPs in recent years have been vocal about shariah compliance in commercial aviation.
In 2018, Rantau Panjang MP Siti Zailah Yusoff said some female Muslim flight attendants were forced to remove their headscarves to earn a living.
In 2020, after she became the deputy women, family and community development minister, Siti Zailah announced the ministry’s intention to implement a shariah-compliant dress code policy for flight attendants.
The following year, another PAS MP, Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman, asked the women, family and community development ministry to champion the cause of Muslim flight attendants who were “forced” to wear uniforms that did not cover their “aurat” so that they could fill their rice bowls.
Rina Harun, the minister at the time, responded that uniform regulations were at the discretion of the airlines.
In January, Yayasan Dakwah Islamiah Malaysia chief executive officer Tuan Kamarul Arief Tuan Soh welcomed Malaysia Airlines’s initiative to conduct a survey on allowing female staff the decision to wear the hijab while on duty.
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