Wong Ah Kiu

Wong Ah Kiu (1918 – 19 January 2006), legally known as Nyonya binti Tahir, was a Malaysian woman born to a Muslim family but raised Buddhist. The court case which arose after her death over whether she should receive an Islamic funeral or a Buddhist one brought up various issues regarding freedom of religion in Malaysia.

Marriage and family Wong was born in Simpang Ampat, Malacca. According to her children, she adopted the Chinese way of life and ate pork. Her children were also raised as Chinese, and their ethnicity was recorded as such on their identity cards. However, her own identity card recorded her ethnicity as Malay. In 1986, she made an application to have her change of name and religion recorded on her own identity card; in response to this application, she was investigated by the Alor Gajah Islamic Affairs office, who issued a report on 7 May 1986 on the basis of which her application was denied.

Death and court case Wong died on 19 January 2006, a Thursday, at the age of 88 at her home in Taman Indah. The Religious Affairs Department had the Tampin Syariah Court issue an injunction to put her burial on hold when they found out she was Malay; the Negeri Sembilan Islamic Affairs Council and Negeri Sembilan Islamic Affairs Department then filed an ex parte application with the Syariah High Court in Seremban the next day regarding her burial. However, the court, having heard testimony from her children that she lived and died as a Buddhist, ruled on the following Monday that Wong was a non-Muslim when she died, and permitted her family to proceed with Buddhist funeral rites. Wong was buried next to her husband in the Chinese cemetery in her birthplace of Simpang Ampat, Alor Gajah.