Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff


Siti Zailah binti Mohd Yusoff is a Malaysian politician and the Member of the Parliament of Malaysia for the Rantau Panjang constituency in Kelantan. She is a member of Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party and the head of the party's women's wing.

Political career

She was elected to the Dewan Rakyat, the lower house of the Parliament of Malaysia for Rantau Panjang in the 2008 general election. Before her election she was a Senator for Kelantan, an appointed position. She won the seat again in the 2013 general election.
In 2011 she was elected as the head of PAS Muslimat, the women's wing of PAS. She retained the post in the 2013 party elections.

Controversies

In July 2014, after the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, Siti Zailah stated that in light of the possibility of "Allah's wrath" Malaysia Airlines should stop serving alcohol and revise the dress code of the female flight attendants, and especially so for Muslim females. Empower, the non-governmental organization criticized her statements, accusing them of being "insensitive and irrelevant".
During the COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020, Siti Zailah, the newly appointed deputy minister for women and family development brought up the question of shariah-compliant uniforms at a time when airline staff were facing likely job cuts, resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak causing a worldwide collapse in travel demand, in Parliament. She faced backlash from the National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia, and from both the public and former Youth and Sports minister YB Syed Saddiq.
Within the same period, she made a post on Twitter, noting that “The fatality rate for COVID-19 is only just 1%, but the chances of us dying at any moment is 100%. Renew our faith and be afraid of Allah, as death is something that is genuine, and comes without invitation.” After much blowback on social media, she temporarily closed her Twitter account.

Election results

Honours