Saira Khan: Mum said I’d brought ‘shame’ on the family
A nude photoshoot led to months of silence between Loose Woman Saira Khan and the mother she adores…
As Saira Khan joined fellow LooseWomen Linda Robson, Jane Moore and Kaye Adams on the show last week for a lively debate about whether you get more rebellious with age, she dropped quite the bombshell.
The British Muslim presenter, discussing a naked photoshoot she took part in last year to mark her milestone 50th birthday, said it led to an epic fallout with her beloved mother – lasting a whole eight months.
Saira’s decision to strip naked for the body-positive piece, without hiding behind feelings of ‘guilt or shame’, was a ‘massive deal’, she explained.
She’s happy with what she calls a ‘political statement’, but she added that it did risk ‘upsetting other people’. Indeed, the move did not go down well with mum Hanifa – and the subsequent ripple effects within the family were ‘very upsetting’.
‘My mum didn’t talk to me for eight months and it really upset me, my family, my children,’ Saira confessed. ‘On my 50th birthday, my mum was not going to phone me up and talk to me. She said, “You have brought shame on the family.”’ Thankfully, her son Zak called his granny to tell her how upset his mum was after overhearing a tearful call with pal Nadia Sawalha.
Saira explained, ‘Realising she might have been about to lose her daughter and grandson, Mum called me half an hour later.’
The pair are talking again, but Saira admitted that, to this day, there are members of her family who ‘still won’t speak to her’ because of that shoot.
‘They think I’ve let a lot of people down. But you know what? I didn’t let myself down,’ said the fiery mumof-two. ‘There’s nothing wrong with being confident and having that self-esteem to do the things you want to do in life.’
When Kaye asked why she felt it so important, knowing it would likely cause ‘troubles within the family’, she replied, ‘I was brought up in an environment where a woman’s body embodies shame and guilt. I’ve had it all my life.
‘And I still see it happening, all around the world. Women are murdered and killed if they celebrate or embrace their bodies in a public way, as it’s seen as being shameful, and dishonouring the family. By doing it, I’d broken that cycle for myself and for my children. If you love me, go with me, grow with me. It was scary, but I had to break that cycle.’
It’s not the first time Saira’s brave choices have had repercussions. In 2017, she received a death threat in response to a bikini snap shared on social media.
Yet this brave, modern, confident British Muslim woman knows exactly why she makes the choices she does – and nobody can stop her.
‘Women are murdered if they celebrate their body’