Brit-Muslim leader forced to dress conservatively after receiving threatening calls

London, Mar. 7 (ANI): A progressive Brit-Muslim woman councillor was forced to dress more conservatively after receiving death threats and sexually harassing phone calls.

Shiria Khatun, 38, told the police that callers threatened to kill her and her four young children.

In one call, they warned they would dig up parents' graves and bury her there instead.

The Labour councillor in the controversial borough of Tower Hamlets is considered one of the area's most progressive politicians.

She was elected in 2006, worked for Ken Livingstone as a transport adviser at London's City Hall and frequently campaigns for more Muslim women to enter politics.

However, over the past year she has been the victim of a "sick" harassment campaign.

At first she was "too embarrassed" to call the police, but when the threats, mostly made in the Bangladeshi dialect Sylheti, targeted her family she decided to act.

"As a councillor I'm meant to be a strong woman and I didn't want to show that I was bothered, but it's gone too far," the Daily Express quoted her, as saying.

"They're really disgusting. They would talk about my Western clothes, my tight jeans and my body parts," she added. (ANI)