Islam is empowering. Culture made it heavy.

A reflection ahead of my upcoming exhibition.

This is a sentence I've carried in my chest for years - one that shaped my art, my womanhood, the arguments I continue to have to justify my freedom of choice and the entire message behind my upcoming exhibition: Islam is empowering. Culture made it heavy.

I grew up watching the world confuse the two. I regard Islam as the faith that lifted women from invisibility, that saved women from being buried alive... by culture ( in both the figurative and proper sense of the term). Culture is the heavy weight that continues to push women back down. The two are entangled, intertwined, inseparable... Fighting back against the misunderstandings, the confusions, the misinterpretations, the unfairness and injustice of culture is our daily lived experience, as Muslim women.

When I paint, I keep close the stories of women who built civilisation with their minds, their faith, their courage. Women like Fatima Al-Fihri, who founded the first university in the world. Women like Aicha (ra), the prophet Mohammed's (pbuh) last wife, a scholar, a jurist, a transmitter of knowledge, whose authority shaped Islamic law. Women like Khadija (ra), the prophet's first wife, a business woman, a leader, the first believer of the prophet (pbuh). Women like the ones Fatima Mernissi wrote about - powerful, intellectual YET forgotten by patriarchal retellings.

Islam gave these women status, voice, dignity and rights centuries before the West even imagined them. Somewhere between the revelation and today, culture and politics eclipsed this truth.

My artistic vision is inspired by great scholars like Mernissi and Abu Lughod, who remind us that the oppression of Muslim women is not born from the Quran, it is born from patriarchy, colonial narratives, political agendas, misuse of religion and from centuries of men interpreting women's stories through their own fears. Whilst culture instructs women to be quiet, lower their voice, be discreet, be patient, be hidden. Islam, on the other hand, tells women that their voice matters, that they are equal in worth, to seek knowledge. My art explores the gap between divine empowerment and cultural burden. The women I present are narrators, they are intentional, they are simply centred.

The world keeps telling Muslim women who they are - and I am tired of it.

The media shows us as shadows - I want to show us as light.

Our ancestors were leaders, warriors, scholars, thinkers - and so many people still don't know their names.

If you feel inspired and are interested to find out more about my upcoming exhibition, please sign up to my page and you will receive information as soon as all the details are set in stone.