An artist who paraded through the streets in metal underwear to highlight sexism has been forced into hiding after receiving death threats.

Kubra Khademi donned the custom-built suit of armour and planned to walk Kabul's streets for 10 minutes during the filmed protest on February 26.

But she was forced back into her car after just eight minutes, facing jeers and catcalls from misogynistic onlookers in Afghanistan's capital.

Now she has said from a secret location that she has received threats on her life and is afraid to go out.

"Even kids were saying 'slap her, slap her'", she told the BBC. "Many people were yelling at me 'look at that whore, what is she doing, is she a foreigner?'.

"Some people were trying to stop the car, hitting the car, jumping on the car."

Kubra said she chose the design of the outfit because it highlighted all the things men think about women in the deeply conservative country.

"The breast, the backside... it's all they see in a woman," she said.

Kubra, who is in her mid-20s, told reporters she had begun to wish for steel underwear since the first time she was groped in public at the age of four.

The protest was a way of expressing that wish as literally as possible.

Serious message: Kubra said "the breast, the backside" are all that Afghan men see in women

When Afghanistan was ruled by the Taliban women were forced to wear the burqa at all times, and that sexism still pervades everyday life 14 years later.

Girls are allowed to be educated but many deeply-held views among men have been hard to shake.

The country has faced the anger of Human Rights Watch, which complains there are still no laws to prevent sexual harassment or protect victims.

Last year President Ashraf Ghani described sexual harassment in schools as “shocking” and ordered the Ministry of Education to report every incident.