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Arahmaiani, an avowed Muslima, confirms in principle this statement. Her father is an Islamic scholar and her mother is of Javanese Hindu-Buddhist extraction. Already their daughter’s name was a compromise. She readily explains that "Arahma" goes back to the Arabic language meaning „loving“, and „iani“ comes from „human being“ in Hindi. Her upbringing saw the coexistence of both convictions: whereas her father provided a strict Islamic culture and instruction, her mother’s family enabled her to learn Javanese dances, songs, legends, poetry, and custom.

Arahmaiani considers that her natural inclination to play the role of a mediator between the worlds is anchored in her origins. Neither within her own family, nor in her homeland is communication between cultures free of conflict. Her awareness of belonging to "another" culture, however, developed most particularly with trips to the "West", first to Australia, and later to Europe. Only when confronted with western art and philosophy, did she realize how different these were from her own "Islamic-Hindu-Buddhist-Animist thinking and lifestyle". Arahmaiani feels that it is a considerable challenge, on this level also, to first raise conflictive issues in search of a realistic base for mutual interests and complementary features, and then to try for reciprocal acceptance.

A central theme of her work is the situation of the woman. Following her principle of not concerning herself with anything outside of her own immediate realm of experience and of taking, as far as possible, her own situation as the base from which she works, she is involved with questions of her own identity as a woman within a community that is ruled by men, as a female artist with a critical approach, as an Asian and Muslima in the international context of her many travels and stays abroad.