Same, Same But Different - Exploring Our Shared Worth (2025)
Same, Same But Different - Exploring Our Shared Worth grew out of a process of writing, art, photography and reflection. Participants came together to explore identity, belonging, and self-discovery. Through storytelling and creative exercises, they uncovered parts of themselves often hidden or silenced. The photoshoot became the final act of expression, a way to step forward, claim space, and be seen in their own light.
The work was guided by four artists: author Rahma Rodaah, visual artist Nora Salem, photographer Faisa Omer, and art therapist Lucy Lu. Their guidance helped participants move through the creative process with care, depth, and courage.
Made possible with funding from the Edmonton Arts Council and the City of Edmonton
Same, Same but Different - Photos by Faisa Omer
Profiling
This theme plays with the idea of “profiling,” a word often tied to scrutiny and control over Muslim lives and bodies. Here, it is reclaimed through art. The portraits turn the gaze back, showing defiance, strength, and beauty. Each profile carries depth, emotion, and diversity, transforming a label once used to reduce into an image that reveals fullness and humanity.
You Do Not Define Me
Each portrait is a declaration of self-definition. The eyes speak first, steady, assured, and unafraid. These images challenge the narratives placed upon Muslim women and affirm the strength that comes from naming ourselves, in our own way.
Coming Out of the Shadows
Light and shadow meet in these portraits, revealing journeys of faith, healing, and becoming. For women who live with disabilities, navigate mental health challenges, or have embraced Islam, visibility is both brave and transformative. These images speak to the courage of being seen and the quiet strength of claiming space on one’s own terms.
through our eyes
These portraits invite the viewer to see the world through many lenses. Each face carries a truth shaped by heritage, migration, and memory. One image shows hands placed gently over the eyes, reminding us that humanizing one another does not mean we must think alike or share the same beliefs. We are the same in our humanity, yet we cannot be blind to injustice. To truly see is to listen with care, to hold space for difference, and to stand firmly against harm.
go with the flow
These portraits celebrate movement, joy, and freedom. Fabric flows around the women like air and water, capturing grace and release. This theme speaks to the beauty of motion, to choosing our direction, and to finding peace in the strength of our own rhythm.
strength in each other
Here, strength is shown through tenderness. The warmth of shared laughter and the touch of a hand reveal how power exists within care. These portraits celebrate the ways women hold one another, how friendship, trust, and compassion become forms of resistance and renewal.
holding on to who we are
Wrapped in color, texture, and tradition, these images celebrate culture as living memory. The women hold items from their ancestral homes, connecting past and present. This theme affirms that identity is not static. It moves with us, held with pride and passed forward with care.
united, unbroken
This theme is about resilience in unity. The women stand linked, facing forward, holding one another with quiet strength. It speaks to what endures even after hardship: connection, solidarity, and the will to keep moving forward together.
still here, together
This image captures community as a living act. They reflect the comfort of belonging, of standing side by side and being understood without words. In togetherness, there is laughter, healing, and the unspoken reminder that we are still here and always will be.
Voices of the Participants
Each participant chose their own portrait, created an art piece, and wrote their own captions.
The photos and captions below reflect how they see themselves and their journey. They also reflect the shared conversation about what it means to be a Muslim woman today.
Shafia khan
Chantelle Murphy- kamal
Chantelle Murphy- kamal
The grass is greener wherever I am. I add value to everything around me.
I've always given my all to each relationship in my life; be it a friend, daughter, sister, wife or mother, but I need to remember to take care of myself too.
Chantelle Murphy- kamal
Chantelle Murphy- kamal
Chantelle Murphy- kamal
Where the threads of Métis tradition meet the light of Islamic faith - I stand in the space between, rooted in both, dancing forward with pride.
Amera Sheikh Mohamed
Chantelle Murphy- kamal
Amera Sheikh Mohamed
She walks not through the world, but with it
a hush of desert wind about her.
Brown skin, earth-kissed and ancient,
glows like dates under the noonday sun.
Auburn hair hides like flame behind
a veil of gold, soft as whispered prayers.
Dima Johal
Abraar Alsilwadi
Iqmat Iyiola
From childhood struggles to brighter days, God always sends the right people to lift you higher. I turned my wheelchair into a champion’s chariot, proving that strength is a choice, not circumstance.
Iqmat Iyiola
Abraar Alsilwadi
Iqmat Iyiola
Threads that connect generations, woven with resilience - more than just clothing, an inheritance of identity
Abraar Alsilwadi
Abraar Alsilwadi
Abraar Alsilwadi
What they attempt to erase…we cradle and bloom in resistance, a quiet rebellion against erasure.
Maya Abdedaim
Maya Abdedaim
Maya Abdedaim
Grace stitched into every fold, strength carried in silence.
Salima Versi
Maya Abdedaim
Maya Abdedaim
"Knowledge is my companion, it is with me wherever I go. My heart is its container, not the bookshelf. "
Hazrat Ali ibn Abi Talib (AS)
Aisha Salih
Maya Abdedaim
Aisha Salih
The silent beauty of Nuba
Rebecca Pilon
Hafsa Cetinkaya
Hafsa Cetinkaya
"Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest. "
Qu'ran 13:28
Hafsa Cetinkaya
Hafsa Cetinkaya
Hafsa Cetinkaya
"The adornment of a believer is their character."
Ali Ibn Abi Talib (RA)
Allysia Haiste
Hafsa Cetinkaya
Allysia Haiste
I am me, authentically
Aaima Azhar
She is a land of her own. This land is a warrior and a king. This land grows, and grows, and grows. she cannot be owned.
she cannot be saved. cannot be tamed.
she is whole by herself, even
as parts of her drift off, to be in love with the open ocean, she is made of clay and water and blood.
she does not change, only moves,
calls to the moon,
who calls to the tides,
to dance with her.
~ all the same, and so very different. our women.