Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, Malaysia’s Former First Lady, Dies at 100

Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, wife of former Malaysian prime minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and one of the country’s earliest Malay women doctors, died on 28 September 2026 at the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur, according to the New Straits Times and The Star. She was 100 years old.

A Pioneering Life in Medicine and Public Service

Born on 12 July 1926 in Klang, Selangor, Siti Hasmah studied medicine at King Edward VII College of Medicine in Singapore, graduating in 1955 and becoming one of the first Malay women to qualify as a doctor at a time when the profession was almost entirely closed to women in the region. She went on to serve as Malaysia’s First Lady during Dr. Mahathir’s two terms as prime minister, from 1981 to 2003 and again from 2018 to 2020, using her position to champion women’s health, family planning and maternal welfare initiatives throughout her decades in public life.

A State Funeral and National Tributes

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that Siti Hasmah would be accorded a state funeral, according to the New Straits Times, reflecting her standing as one of the country’s most respected public figures. She is survived by her husband, now 101, and their seven children. In the days following her death, Dr. Mahathir was reported by the Malay Mail to have visited her grave, a moment that drew widespread sympathy and tributes from across Malaysia and the wider region.

Why It Matters

Siti Hasmah’s death marks the passing of a figure whose public life stretched across more than six decades of Malaysian nation-building, from the earliest years of the country’s modern medical profession to the present era of its politics. Her advocacy for women’s healthcare helped shape public health policy in Malaysia at a time when few women held professional standing in medicine, and her long tenure as First Lady made her one of the most widely recognised women in the country’s modern history, admired both for her own professional achievements and for the public role she built alongside her husband.