Mdm Rahayu Mohamed
Board Member
Organisation: Persatuan Permudia Islam Singapore (PPIS)
Mdm Rahayu Mohamad is the President of the PPIS (Persatuan Pemudi Islam Singapore) or The Singapore Muslim Women’s Association, a Muslim women NGO with a mission to inspire women and strengthen families. She is also a member of The National Council of Problem Gambling, Council for Third Age, a member of the Social Service Tripartite Taskforce and also one of the founding members of the Singapore Alliance of Women for Aging (S.A.W.A).
In the Malay Muslim community, she is one of the community leaders serving on several other boards and councils, including the Council for the Development of Singapore Malay/Muslim Community (Yayasan MENDAKI), and Lembaga Biasiswa Kenangan Maulud (LBKM). In 2016, she was appointed by the President of Singapore as a Council Member for the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) and again reappointed for the second term in 2019 – 2022.
Madam Rahayu has had more than 20 years of experience in the social sector, specifically working in the issues affecting women in the Muslim community. As one of the women leaders in the community, she sits at various committee, board, and council as part of her continuous work to proactively push for representations on committees that examined issues or legislations that would impact women.
She strongly believes in the development of the community; we need advocacy work for women. This has led to the formation of the PPIS Research and Engagement Department (RED) further underlying her commitment to support Muslim Women in the changing social landscape of Singapore. This department supports PPIS active involvement in the recent amendment to the Administration of Muslim Law Act in 1966 as well as the 2017 CEDAW Coalition Shadow Report to the 65th Session of CEDAW UN Committee in Geneva last October.
In 2018, PPIS under the leadership of Madam Rahayu, together with the leaders of the Tsao Foundation, AWARE, and SCWO established an alliance to form the Singapore Alliance of Women for Aging (S.A.W.A) as part of the ground-up initiatives to advocate the issues affecting elderly women and their caregivers. Since its inception, the alliance has managed to submit a report for the budget proposal 2020 recommending assistance and support for the elderly women and the caregivers looking after the aged.
Madam Rahayu believes in the development of the community; there is a need for a strong woman voice. A voice of reason, confidence and quiet authority in advancing Muslim women’s socio-economic status in line with the common goal of raising the community’s profile. To exemplify this commitment, Madam Rahayu was recently appointed as the Deputy Chairperson for the Women Department of the Regional Islamic Dawah Council for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (RISEAP) in 2018, a council serving the Muslim minorities in the region. She acts as one of the advisors to set the direction for the Muslim Women empowerment programs targeting young women leaders and activists in the region.
To date, holding a Masters in Curriculum and Teaching from NTU, and Honours in Law and Syariah from International Islamic University, Malaysia, she is a curriculum specialist as well as an Associate Lecturer of one of the leading institutes in the National Institute of Early Childhood Education in Singapore, and a consultant to many of our local Muslim organisations. Internationally, she is one of the resource persons to Jakarta International School and IQRA’s International Educational Foundation in Chicago. She is married to Dr. Hannan Hassan, the Deputy Mufti of the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS) and a mother to six adult children.
