Ramhani grew up in a Muslim society and in an artistic household; his father was a landscape painter who avoided portraying the human figure for religious reasons. He occasionally had to paint commissioned portraits and explained to his son that he would ask God's forgiveness. The paradox at the core of Ramhani's work is the tradition of aniconism in Islam. His fascination with portraiture is at odds with the practice of Islamic calligraphy, which has long been a venerated art form for representing the divine.
