The woman who changed what a doctor could look like

 Dr Hasmah Ali was a doctor before she was a public figure, and her medical work deserves to be remembered on its own terms.

In 1947, a young Malay woman entered medical school in Singapore; she was the only Malay woman in her intake. I wonder what it felt like to walk into that classroom each morning, knowing there was nobody quite like you there.

Dr Hasmah Ali, also known as Siti Hasmah, went on to graduate, practise medicine and lead public health services. With her passing at the age of 100, we have lost someone who helped change what a doctor could look like in Malaysia.

Many knew her as the wife of a prime minister. She was that, and carried the role for decades, but she was a doctor before she was a public figure, and her medical work deserves to be remembered on its own terms.

After graduating in 1955, she worked in a hospital before devoting herself to maternal and child health in Kedah. In 1965, she became the first woman to be appointed as a medical officer in the maternal and child health department; in 1974, she became the state’s first female maternal and child health officer. She also led the rural health training school in Jitra.

Those appointments gave her responsibility for people’s care and for the health workers who would provide it.

Her teams travelled to villages to provide immunisation and health education. They worked with traditional midwives and spoke with families about pregnancy, childbirth and caring for newborns.

Hasmah understood that a mother could not always arrange transport, leave her responsibilities and appear at a clinic simply because a doctor wanted her there. Healthcare had to make the journey towards her.

I find that part of her story especially moving. It is easy to praise a pioneer for being a trailblazer. It takes longer to understand the patient work that followed: returning to communities, earning trust and teaching others to care for mothers and children.

She helped build a health service in which a woman’s judgment could guide that work.

The norm she challenged has changed profoundly for Malaysian women who came after her such as Dr Narimah Awin, who went on to lead family health services and advise the World Health Organization on maternal and reproductive health; Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, whose work on HIV took her into global leadership; and Dr Jemilah Mahmood, who founded Mercy Malaysia and now leads work in planetary health.

And of course, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who took her experience as a doctor into national political life while continuing to support programmes and changes within the health landscape. Most recently, Dr BP Nirmala, a Malaysian cancer epidemiologist, joined the World Health Organization (WHO) science council this year.

For me, this is also personal. Dr S Saunthari leads the National Cancer Society of Malaysia, of which I now serve as a director. She is also the first Malaysian president-elect of the global NCD Alliance.

Around these well-known names are many more women leading wards, district services, classrooms and research teams. Each has earned their place. Together, they show how far women’s authority in medicine now reaches.

Hasmah lived another side of medicine when she was treated for breast cancer. In 2019, she spoke publicly about that experience.

The doctor who had spent years urging women to care for their health let us hear from her as a patient. Her illness did not define her life, but her willingness to speak about it was another way of making women’s health visible.

We should be careful not to assume that there is a straight line from one woman to the next. Hasmah did not create every opportunity that followed, and the women who came after her built their own careers.

But the legacy of her achievement was to help change expectations of them. She showed Malaysians a Malay woman practising medicine, teaching health workers and leading a service at a time when that was a rare sight.

She remains an icon because her example still asks something of us. When a young woman finds herself the only one in the room, will we recognise her ability and make room for her to lead? When a patient cannot reach care, will we go closer to them?

Hasmah answered those questions with her life. Her light continues in the women who enter medicine, in those who lead it, and in the people whose lives they change.

And as much as we will remember the former prime minister’s wife, we will also remember the doctor who went to mothers in the villages of Kedah, the teacher who prepared others to care for them, and the woman who spoke openly when she herself faced cancer.

Hasmah was always her own woman. Her work lives on in the people it reached; her example lives on in the women who follow. And she will remain, very dearly, in our hearts. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of  MMKtT