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Saira Khan blasts Muslim Twitter troll who slammed her for posing in a bikini

Saira Khan has taken a stand against Twitter trolls today, blasting one who told her that he felt “disgraced” to see a fellow Muslim pose in a bikini for the show’s #MyBodyMyStory campaign.

Speaking to her fellow panellists, Linda Robson, Janet Street-Porter and Ruth Langsford, Saira insisted that she wasn’t going to let the misogynistic comment get the better of her.

All of the Loose Women stripped off for the campaign.
All of the Loose Women stripped off for the campaign.

The 47-year-old star seethed: “I just felt really, really sad. All my other colleagues were getting so much praise, no one mentioning their religion or what they represent.

“But for me, I was the only Muslim woman in the whole shoot and I got criticism.

“To clarify I got lots of support from the Muslim community – but there were a few people who decided to take it the wrong way.”

She went on to read out part of the message that she’d received, including: “Your body parts are precious to you, as a Muslim I am disgraced to see this, you are a role model for many but this is not the way.”

Saira has hit back
Saira has hit back

Saira responded: “My family are Muslim and I have to be very careful about what I say and I’ve kept my mouth shut for a very long time but I decided for the first time to confront this head on as I’ve had enough of people having a go at my mum for the things that I decide to do.

“I’m 47, I’m married, I’ve got two children, I now feel confident to say enough is enough.

“I just kind of wanted to say that, look I am a Muslim, and I am very happy to take part in this campaign.

“For me it has helped lots of women of colour to say: ‘Look yeah, our bodies look like that, we’re a bit darker, we’ve got stretch marks, you know, we’ve got a bit of belly, we are normal too’.

Saira is proud of her bod – and so she should be!
Saira is proud of her bod – and so she should be!

“What hurt me was to say this is ‘evil’, that as a Muslim I was representing evil. Me in a bikini is not evil… killing innocent people in the name of my religion that is evil.

“I’ve come on here and I’ve told people that my body was abused at the age of 13 without my permission by a family member, that affected me as a person, as a woman for the rest of my life.

“That’s why I wanted to do it. Forget my religion, forget my colour, just as a woman to be able to feel confident to stand there and say at long last I’m actually really happy.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves, and we are so proud of Saira for putting the cruel trolls in their place – personally we thought that she, and the other Loose Women, looked bloomin’ fantastic.

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