'Shave or I'll kill myself': Wife threatens devout Muslim cleric

A 36-year-old imam from Meerut in India, was recently faced with a bizarre threat from his wife: 'shave, or I'll kill myself'.
According to reports, the imam, Arshad Badruddin, in his complaint to the district magistrate, has alleged that his 33-year-old wife Sahana insisted on him shaving off his beard as she was 'fond of clean-shaven men like Bollywood superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan'.
When he tried to reason that clerics like himself sported a beard, she was still insistent.
 Now the cleric is in a fix as his wife is demanding that he shave or else she will commit suicide.
"She insists on her demand. I have also told her many times to curtail the use of mobile phone as I fear that our children will also pick the bad habit and it would become difficult to discipline them. I am irritated by her behaviour. When I scolded her recently, she started crying and threatened to commit suicide after poisoning our children," the cleric wrote in his letter to the DM.
He also alleged that Sahana was chatting to 'gair mard' or unknown men and using her mobile phone through the day.
They have two children and have been married since 2001.
According to Badruddin's complaint, his wife recently tried to hang herself when he refused to go Eid shopping for "western clothes for the children and herself."
The annoyed husband has now sought help and requested that Sahana be counselled as he fears he might be blamed if she does anything to herself.

• India