STAR CALLS FOR
In a searing interview, Saira reveals she has received huge support for hitting back at a female preacher who said it was sinful for Muslims to pluck their eyebrows.
Furious Saira responded by posting an Instagram snap of her rear view as she sunbathed in a bikini with the caption: “Here’s my response – kiss my a**.”
That triggered a hate-filled troll to warn her: “If you value your life keep the f*** out of Islam”.
Today defiant Saira, a Muslim who has suffered online abuse in the past from extremists, brushes aside the “cowardly” death threat and urges frightened women who have backed her in secret to find the courage to stand up for their rights.
She says: “Women are too scared to talk about it on social media. They come up to me in the street. Or they direct message me to say ‘Look we don’t want to show that we’re supporting you, but thank you’.
“Most Muslims who contact me to support me do so secretly because they are too scared to come out.
“But I think if you’re silent on these little issues – about eyebrows, wearing a bikini – if you don’t speak up, then actually you are part of the problem.
COWARDLY
“If you look at how change has been made in the world, it’s not by being quiet. It’s time for people to stand up and be counted.”
Saira, 47, says she hasn’t been frightened by the online abuse.
“I’m sorry, but I’m not scared. My message to all of those people who try to use religion to hate others is: stop being cowardly.
“I’d love to meet the person who sent that tweet and ask why he feels the need to want to threaten someone’s life.
“I have seen lots of things inflaming me about my religion, my culture, but I have never sent somebody a death threat because I can control myself.
“People are saying I’m fuelling Islamophobia. I am not fuelling Islamophobia.
“I am standing up for women who practise my religion, who are modern, who are progressive, who are actually quite scared to come out and say it because look at the response you get.”
When female preacher Umm Jamaal ud-din, an Australian convert to Islam, last week claimed online that women who plucked their eyebrows were committing a sin, Saira – on holiday in Croatia with her family – knew she had to leap to their defence.
After posting her bikini-clad bottom she later shared the Twitter death threat, reported the sender to police and posted a second bikini picture on Instagram with the caption “Now where did I put my clothes?” She says: “What this preacher said just completely got my back up. “I was on holiday and this woman is actually making people like me feel bad about living my life. “I’ve got loads of friends and family who pluck their eyebrows, work in the beauty industry. “They’re Muslim and you just think why are people coming out and preaching this nonsense? “And for me I think, I can keep my mouth shut and say, ‘Oh it’s just nonsense’. “But if we do then these people use social media to preach that hate towards women and make other women feel guilty, shameful, sinful. That’s not what a reli- Ud-din warning angered Saira Saira on hols in her bikinis
If you don’t speak up about these little issues, you’re part of the problem SAIRA ON MUSLIM WOMEN STANDING UP FOR THEIR RIGHTS