PETALING JAYA: Fast food chain KFC has started to dress its female staff in Kelantan in long-sleeved uniforms, to abide by a “cover aurat” ruling by the state government, set to take effect next year.

New Straits Times (NST) reported that KFC, which has 20 outlets in Kelantan – 10 of it in Kota Bharu alone, introduced the new uniforms back in April following talks with the PAS-led state government.

“Our company has no problem adhering to the regulations put up by the Kelantan government and we will ensure our female workers wear the uniform all the time,” a KFC spokesman told the daily.

Yesterday, NST reported Kelantan Local Government, Housing, Youth and Sports Committee chairman Abdul Fattah Mahmood saying that the new uniform rule is to ensure female Muslim staff covered their aurat.

The ruling would affect Muslim women working in hypermarkets in the state.

Non-Muslim female workers in the state are not bound by the rule, but were told to dress decently.

The ruling prompted former Kota Bharu MP and former law minister Zaid Ibrahim to call Islamist party PAS a party desperately trying to remain relevant.