Noreen about herself: ” I feel liberal and free, but at the same time conservative and religious. Religious, yet a
sinner. In my work I explore what it means to navigate back and forth between my Pakistani and Dutch upbringing. Am I a good Muslim or a liberal Dutch artist? Or could I be both? Being a product of an unhappy marriage of parents who culturally and morally clash with each other in various ways has questioned the meaning and purpose of my own identity.

Drawing portraits has always been a therapy to me. An escape from a bitter-sweet household. To find
‘me’. Through drawing I find what Islam means to me. A totally different approach to how I
have traditionally been thaught Islam by my mother. Drawing is my Islam.
The misunderstandings, abuse, deep sadness, cultural clashes and painful love between my
parents as well as the disapproval of pursuing the arts in the beginning stages of my drawing
career had suppressed within me a fire of anger and liberating energy. To finally let it all out
and give it my all.

The experimentation with different mixed media drawing techniques is a metaphor to truly
finding who I am. I could not fulfil my duty to become the good Muslim women my mother
wanted for me, neither could I make a career in the sciences as my father wanted for me.
But maybe, just maybe I could become the contemporary drawing artist I have always
yearned to become? And then, what role does Islam play in all this?”