PUBLISHED ONDecember 10, 2025 9:40 AMBYSean LerA Malaysian woman and her mother who met with an accident while driving from Johor to Kuala Lumpur on Monday (Dec 8) were denied entry into the Jasin District Police Headquarters in Melaka due to a purported dress-code violation.
The incident has since drawn public attention in Malaysia after the mother's claims were reported by local media.
Sin Chew Daily quoted the mother, surnamed Guo and in her 50s, as saying that they were stopped by a police officer at the guard post outside the district police headquarters.
According to Guo, the officer told them that her daughter's skirt length — which was above the knee — was in violation of a dress code for official government buildings.
Despite informing the officer that they were there to lodge an accident report, Guo said the officer remained adamant, saying he could be scolded if he allowed them entry.
Guo eventually heeded the officer's advice and headed to a nearby mall to buy a pair of trousers for her daughter.
"There should always be exceptions. We couldn't have expected that an accident would happen or bring along a pair of trousers wherever we go right?" she lamented.
Melaka police chief Dzulkhairi Mukhtar said the incident happened at around 5pm on Monday.
According to Dzulkhairi, the officer on duty advised Guo and her daughter to change into more appropriate clothing, noting that neither was injured.
"The officer at the front entrance simply asked them to return home first to change into suitable attire. This is because the dress code for government premises must be observed so long as the situation does not involve a critical emergency," the police chief told the Malaysian media on Dec 9.
He added that both Guo and her daughter returned at 5.40pm in "more modest clothing" and were allowed in to make their report.
Dzulkhairi also clarified that the police allow flexibility in genuine emergencies.
Separately, Malaysian Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo, who is also the MP for Damansara in Petaling Jaya, weighed in on the incident, criticising the Melaka police.
"The immediate and primary focus of the police officer on duty should have been to assist the victims," he said in a statement on Dec 9.
"People don't dress up in anticipation of crime. It cannot, therefore, be the basis for deciding whether or not a person can lodge reports," added the minister, who also said that he would raise the matter with Malaysian Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.
Checks by AsiaOne indicate that the dress code is a guideline and cannot be enforced as law. Nonetheless, it is a practice scoped around being "courteous and modest" in dressing.
In 2023, when a similar incident happened in Selangor, Bernama reported Malaysian lawyer Ahmad Ishrakh Saad as saying that the dress code is "implicit and not enforceable by law".
The lawyer added that enforcing the dress code may trigger polemics on the right to freedom as provided under the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.
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