PAS-ruled Kelantan will impose the maximum fine on women who fail to wear headscarves as part of a crackdown on local dresscodes, a report said today.

The municipal council in Kota Baru, the capital of Kelantan, said a maximum fine of RM50 will be meted out.

"It is time to impose the maximum compound (fine). We hope it will create more awareness," Azman Mohamad Daham, a council spokesman was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times.

The newspaper said 80 women, mostly shop assistants, had already been fined RM30 in the first five months of the year.

"The women were mostly found not wearing headscarves at night and during weekends as they thought enforcement officers would not be around to check on them," he said.

He added there would be continued checks to ensure regulations are obeyed.

PAS, which has ruled the state for 15 years, introduced the dresscode in 1995 which demand female Muslims working in public places in Kelantan cover their bodies, except for their hands and faces.

No miniskirts

Non-Muslim female workers are forbidden from wearing miniskirts or revealing dresses.

Since then, the municipal council, which enforces the rules, has periodically fined women for not wearing headscarves and threatened to remove employers' business licenses if their staff do not follow the rules.

PAS, which aims to turn multicultural Malaysia into a theocratic state under Islamic rule, has in the past issued a series of religious decrees in Kelantan.

These included a ban on unisex hairdressing salons, massage parlours and public singing and dancing. PAS has also sought to discourage Muslim women from wearing lipstick.

However, the party was thumped in last year's general elections and lost power in the neighbouring state of Terengganu but the PAS managed to keep its hold on Kelantan with a slim majority.