Identity begins at birth: a tongue curling around language, the meeting point of complexion and ethnicity, and the first, cautious steps into an environment. Children are socialized into understanding the world in select paradigms, colored by their upbringing and the ways in which they are taught to see themselves. For many, this process is fragmented; third-culture kids walk a thin, ready-to-snap tightrope of belonging—caught in the crevices between two cultures, battling the faultlines of two or more ideologies. Splintered as this reality is, it is also an opportunity to stitch worlds together and find themselves in the process. Noss e Noss—or rather, half-and-half, in Arabic—is a “multi-media” art initiative turned community dedicated to Egyptian-Dutch women, striving to bridge the gap between Egypt and the Netherlands. Through a series of editorial profile shots, artist and photographer Nadine Mrb brings to life a group of women often overlooked in dialogues of Egyptian dual-nationality. Alongside co-founders Farah de Haan and Amel Labeab, Mrb was able to uncover a transnational community, creating a safe space where Egyptian-Dutch women can come together and communicate their experiences, narratives, and belonging. “We are ethnically mixed. Bi-cultural. Transnational,”…
