8 Badass M'sian Women Who Were The First To Make Incredible Achievements In Their Fields

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Born of Dayak Kelabit heritage, Alena Murang's inspiration came from the songs and dances of her people. She has been playing the sape', a traditional lute native to the Orang Ulu community of central Borneo, and has performed at various international music festivals and events, including Paris Fashion Week.

Recognised for her work in cultural heritage by the UNESCO Asia-Pacific region, Alena was also a youth representative at the UNESCO youth forum in Paris, France.

Alena has been playing the sape' for over 20 years, breaking the taboo of women playing musical instruments and reviving the tradition of sape' music. She has since won various awards, including Best Music Video at the 2021 Rome International Movie Awards and the Best Ethnographic Film at the 2021 New York International Film Festival.

Read more about Alena and her work here.

It was 1955, and young Emily Koshy (maiden name Mathew), who hoped to further her studies in medicine, decided to change her fate upon seeing an advertisement in The Straits Times looking for probationary female inspectors.

Meeting all the requirements stated in the advertisement, Emily travelled to Melaka for the interview, and she was among the 700 candidates present. A week had since passed, and Emily received a letter saying she was one of the seven people who succeeded. Emily then grew to become the country's first Indian policewoman in the multiracial branch.

Aside from serving during the Malayan Emergency of 1955 and the 13 May incident in 1969, Emily also had the honour of leading the female platoon of officers during the first Merdeka parade in 1957.

Emily joined the Film Censorship Board for seven years after her retirement as Deputy Superintendent of Police from the force. 

Read more of her story here.

The two sisters of incredible energy and adventurous spirits are the women behind one of Malaysia's most anticipated yearly events, the Putrajaya Hot Air Balloon Fiesta.

Izzati and Atiqah inherited ballooning from their late father, who happened to be the country's first hot air balloon pilot, and have continued with the hobby-cum-business since. After getting licensed in Spain, the sisters have travelled across the globe, working on events both private and commercial, as well as assembled a team of similarly-passionate balloon enthusiasts to help them along the ride.

The dynamic duo completed the six-month ballooning course in just one month, and instead of letting one triumph over the other, they decided to become Malaysia's first female hot air balloonists at the same time in 2015.

Read more about their business here.

Deanna Mior is as kickass as it gets — both figuratively and literally. 

Aside from being certified as the first female PILOXING (SSP) Master Trainer in Malaysia back in 2020, Deanna is a Geology graduate, a freelance fitness instructor, a personal trainer for kickboxing and Muay Thai, and a mother. She teaches PILOXING (a fitness programme that is a combination of boxing and Pilates) both online and in person, travelling to events across the country and beyond borders. Deanna is part of the Piloxing Malaysia group and a senior instructor at TRIBE Boxing Studio in Mont Kiara. 

Speaking to SAYS, Deanna chose the path to become a Piloxing instructor after falling in love with the programme. Passionate about the uniqueness of the programme in addition to her high-energy, "no nonsense" attitude, Deanna considers it a dream come true when promoted to Master Trainer as it allows her to spread awareness of how amazing the programme is.

While her exterior may look docile, she has earned the nickname "Drill Sergeant Deanna" from her students. She is a tough woman who knows how to push her students to give their all in a way that has them eager to return to her classes.

In her spare time, Deanna takes drumming lessons and learns Japanese and Korean.

Learn more about her and her classes here.

Establishing a national walking record at just the age of 21, Annastasia Karen Raj finished the 10km race at the record time of 45 minutes and 47 seconds, earning herself 24th place out of the 46 qualifiers, and competing against over 80 other race-walkers.

Annastasia broke the national record 13 times, and was honoured Olympian of the Year by the YDMM Di-Pertuan Agong in 1996.

Annastasia was scouted at age 17 by her coach while she was working as a waitress at the Concorde Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, in 1992. Since then, up to her brief comeback in the 2001 SEA Games, she has been respected as one of the last of the golden generation of great sportsmen and sportswomen. Annastasia has also served as the Vice President of the Malaysian Olympians Association for the 2020-2022 term.

She is now the Head of Talent Acquisition in conglomerate group, Al-Futtaim, based in Dubai. Despite having left the atheletic scene, she still hopes that the young generation, especially Malaysian Indians, get more involved in sports and are able to build a name for themselves, as she did with her own.

Learn more about her here.

After three years as a teacher in her ex-school in Penang, B H Oon pursued Law in England and became the first Malayan woman to be admitted into the English Bar. She received the admission call the same night as her brother despite both of them completing their Law degrees at different times. 

Upon her return to Malaya, during which the law did not allow for women to be admitted to the Bar in Malaya, she made waves by having the law change for her in order for her to continue practising. This added on to her list of accolades as the first Asian woman to be admitted into the Malayan Bar.  She continued to practise under her own firm for 50 years. She was one of two women who served the Federal Legislative Council in 1948, and had played a part in shaping the political frame of the country that was related to women's and labour rights, including the establishment of the first MCA branch in Seberang Prai, Penang.

In 1953, she was awarded an OBE, or the Officer of the Order of the British Empire as recognition of not only her work as a lawyer but also her continuous contributions to society.

From 1971 up to her death in 1979, she served as the President of the International Federation of Women Lawyers.

Read more on her here.

Another prominent figure of the legislation scene in Malaysia, P G Lim was an advocate for the underprivileged and of trade union rights. She served as the counsel of the infamous Railway's Union of Malaya case that accorded 14,000 railwaymen the status of government employee. She took up workmen's compensation cases, particularly those who have died in rubber plantations without compensation given to their families. During her service, she was not treated differently as a woman — one of very few in a male-dominated job.

When the aftermath of the 13 May riots saw the dissolving of Parliament, P G Lim was one of two women to hold a position in the National Operations Council, who oversaw the establishment of the Rukun Negara. In 1971, she was named Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, with the rank Ambassador, by then-Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak. She served as the Malaysian diplomat to Yugoslavia, Austria, Belgium, and the European Economic Community.

Among her list of awards are the 1982 Tun Fatimah Gold Medal Award and the 2009 Merdeka Award. She earned the title 'Dato' in 1997, and 'Tan Sri' later in 2011.

Read more of her story here.

Starting off as a ticketing officer for the KL Monorail Line for 11 years, Uma Devi Rengasamy wanted something more challenging, exciting, and outside of her comfort zone. After hearing about vacancies for female train conductors, Uma Devi decided to try it out, and ended up passing all the qualifying interviews with flying colours. She then became the first Indian female LRT conductor in Malaysia.

After going through extensive training, she was handed the key — equivalent to a license and is only available to qualified members — to the LRT train on the Ampang line. After almost three years on duty, Uma Devi is now an inspiration for young women, especially Malaysian Indian women, to work hard in achieving their goals. Uma also aspires to be the first female train driver for Malaysia's upcoming high-speed railway project.

She balances her job and her household well, despite having to wake up early in the morning to get the train lines set up for her 10-hour shift. She makes time to manage her home, and sees her husband and daughters as her motivation to keep going. She considers seeing passengers come on and off her train as her favourite part on duty, and considers her job something she'll never get tired of.

Learn more about her and her job here.