New book celebrates lives of young Malay, Muslim women

When Ms Siti Nurhajah was 18, she sacrificed her dreams of becoming a nurse to support her family of six, who were on the verge of becoming homeless.

Now 26, she has graduated with a diploma in nursing and is one of 20 successful Muslim women honoured in a commemorative book, launched yesterday ahead of International Women's Day tomorrow.

Titled Unprecedented - To The Beat Of Her Own Drum, it was conceptualised and written by a team of 50 youth volunteers from Mendaki Club over two years.

Ms Nadia Yeo, co-founder of the club's Young Women in Leadership Dialogue, said the book celebrates the lives of 20 young Malay/Muslim women who have achieved success in various forms.

From musicians to humanitarian activists to hawkers, they exemplify resilience, courage and commitment, she added. They were selected from an open call for nominations through social media.

President Halimah Yacob officiated the book's launch at co-working space WeWork at Funan.

She noted that a recurring issue that has surfaced from the series of Conversations on Singapore Women's Development was the need for society to shift away from the mindset that women must be the de facto caregiver at home.

She said: "Everyone can contribute in enabling the aspirations of our young women to take flight, whether by changing such biased perceptions, supporting them in their endeavours, or even sharing household responsibilities."

When Ms Siti was hospitalised at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) at the age of 14 to remove cysts in her ovaries, she was afraid. But the nurses there changed her life. She said: "The nurses really went out of the way to care for me, and that was very memorable."

She would later pursue nursing at the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) College East in 2013, though she withdrew later that year to start working and support her family.

Her father, who was the sole breadwinner of the family, had diabetes and hepatitis C and was too weak to continue working.

The oldest of four siblings, she stopped schooling to work in the food and beverage sector.

She told The Sunday Times: "We had just moved into a place of our own after two years of staying in a shelter, so I wanted to make sure that we were able to pay the bills."

When her sister graduated from school and began working in 2017, Ms Siti returned to ITE and emerged as its valedictorian in 2019. She pursued a diploma in nursing at Nanyang Polytechnic, and will work as a registered nurse at KKH.

"I wanted to give back to KKH after my experience there so that I could inspire the younger nurses."