At age 16, Hend Al-Mansour joined the Medical School in Cairo University, Egypt. Although, she knew that she would make art all her life, she chose to pursue a career as a doctor which allowed personal freedom and self worth that might not be accessible otherwise. In Arabia women were second-class citizens despite the modernized façade of the country. She practiced art to fulfill her desire for self-expression. Often when she would participate in a show her work would be censored out. In 1997, she seized an opportunity to come to the United States. Living as an independent woman in America she no longer needed the status that medical career offered. Realizing that art was the one thing that fulfilled her ambitions she recognized the value of living her life to the fullness of her dreams.
In 2002 she obtained a Master of Fine Art from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She has participated in local and national shows, lectures about Arab women and art and her personal journey, and has curated exhibitions for other Arab and Muslim artists. Al Mansour’s work makes references to the identity and gender politics in Arab society and in Islamic teaching. Her style pays homage to Arabic and Islamic art forms. In her quest to discover the nature of Arab art and how she relates to it, she has recently begun an Art history Masters at St. Thomas University. “Examining art from the perspective of art history”, she said, might help her trace the invisible path of Arab artistic production in the last few centuries.