MALAYSIAN low-cost airline AirAsia will have an all-male cabin crew servicing the Aceh route, following the region’s order that Muslim female flight attendants must don the hijab upon arrival.

In a statement to The Malaysian Insight today, AirAsia said it acknowledged the regulation imposed by Aceh authorities.

“We are committed to ensuring that our operations adhere to the regulation. For the time being, all AirAsia flights from and to Aceh will be operated by male cabin crew.”

Aceh authorities said Muslim female flight attendants who failed to adhere to the ruling would face punishment by religious police.

However, the type of punishment was not specified.

Muslim women in Aceh, on the island of Sumatra, are required to wear the Islamic headscarf under religious law, while non-Muslim women can opt to wear modest clothing instead.

However, some Muslim female flight attendants who did not regularly wear the hijab were skipping the local practice during short layovers, forcing the issuance of the new regulation, said Mawardy Ali, head of Aceh Besar district, which includes provincial capital Banda Aceh.

Mawardy said he would meet some half-dozen affected airlines this week, adding that Aceh was disseminating information on the ruling to airlines throughout the week.

National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia president Ismail Nasarudin said airlines had no choice but to comply with the regulation.

“You have no choice, but to prepare them (cabin crew) for it.”

He said this was not the first case of such regulations being imposed, as the same applied to female flight attendants servicing the Jeddah route.

“The regulations of the said country are different from ours, where it is required by law for Muslims, or any woman, to cover up by wearing the hijab.

“So, if AirAsia is flying to Aceh, then the airline has to follow the guideline. They can’t land or leave the plane if they refuse to comply with local laws.”

Many women in Indonesia, the world’s biggest Muslim-majority nation, do not wear the hair-covering scarf, and Islamic law only applies in Aceh – the region won special autonomy in 2001 as part of a deal to end a long-running separatist insurgency.

Concern has been growing among rights activists about rising religious conservatism in Aceh, where police over the weekend forcibly cut the hair of a group of transgender women and made them wear male clothing to make them more “manly”.

Indonesia’s national carrier, Garuda, and its low-cost arm, Citilink, service Banda Aceh, which hosts the province’s main airport.

Garuda said it would comply with the new regulation, and may add a special uniform worn by its female staff on Middle East-bound flights – which includes the hijab – to Aceh flights.

“Garuda respects the local culture in Aceh,” said company spokesman Ikhsan Rosan.

Citilink spokesman Benny Butarbutar, meanwhile, said the carrier had already been using an Islamic-compliant uniform for its flight attendants servicing Aceh since 2015.

Other airlines affected include Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air and its full-service subsidiary, Batik Air, which operate regular flights between Aceh and other parts of the Southeast Asian archipelago.

Malaysia’s AirAsia and Firefly are the main foreign carriers that operate flights to the region. – January 31, 2018.