My name is Buki. I'm a life-drawer and I'm a Muslim.
I'm black, I'm dark-skinned, I wear a weave, I wear make-up.
I draw naked bodies. So I don't look like your average Muslim.
My art is very out there and it gets people talking.
Because I tend to draw breasts and vaginas literally out there.
And I just find it very interesting to understand
how people interpret what they see.
In terms of my art and Islam specifically.
People say that you can actually draw the body.
But you can't make it look like an actual human being.
So that's why I tend not to draw the full body. I don't create art
for people to worship it and I don't create art to mock God or Islam.
I draw art because I want us to appreciate God's creation.
Us human beings. So being a black Muslim woman living in the west.
There's several different things I have to tackle.
So for example being black.
I get told by the media that my black, African features.
So like my bum, my lips only look good on lighter skin complexions.
Being a Muslim, again, if I was to wear the hijab you have ignorant
non-Muslim people thinking that again, Muslim women are so oppressed.
It's so weird the way they think that if I wear a scarf I must
be so oppressed, I don't have a voice.
But nobody really asks the Muslim woman how she feels.
I use my art as a way to strike conversations.
So we can actually talk about these things and have a good debate.
And see in what ways we can actually dismantle the stereotypes.
I don't want people to look at me as an ideal Muslim because I'm far from it.
I just want to show that there are other Muslims out there. People like myself.