The portrait series Schwestern im Westen consists of 17 portraits of young Muslim women living in Berlin.

This work shows Muslim women living in Germany from a different angle than the one usually taken by the media: the women in this series all wear their headscarves willingly, self-confidently, and for religious reasons. Yet their decision is not always respected nor accepted. Rather, it is often met with distrust or incomprehension.

This depiction of these women is intended to reveal a further facet of the complex and often conflicting realities which headscarf-wearing Muslim women face, in order to broaden and diversify the image of these women. By doing so, this work aims to challenge the commonly circulated notion that all women who wear headscarves do so only out of pressure and are either oppressed victims or fanatical fundamentalists.

When this project was undertaken in 2003, the topic was very current as the headscarf debate was making headlines. And still today, this project underlines the necessity for communication between Muslims and non-Muslims.