The department’s Corporate Communications Unit said in a statement that Hakimah would replace Mohamad Nordin Ibrahim, who was appointed Jakim director-general, effective May 17.

Hakimah, who graduated from Universiti Malaya with a bachelor’s degree in shariah in 1990 and a master’s degree in human resource development from Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2001, is the first woman to be appointed to the post, it said.

She joined the civil service in 1992 as an assistant director at the Islamic Affairs Division of the Prime Minister’s Department and then appointed as Principal Assistant Director at the Malaysian Islamic Training Institute (2008-2009).

In 2011, she was appointed director of the Halal Hub Division at Jakim and in 2016, as director of the Islamic Development Division.