Arifur Rahman had always been passionate about drawing, a habit which had not been encouraged by his family members in pious Bangladesh. He recalls, at one time, his grandfather remarking that his drawings, as graven images, would get their entire family sent to hell. Nonetheless, he pursued his passion, and by 2007 he was a cartoonist for one of Bangladesh's largest newspapers. But this good fortune ended when he drew a supposedly blasphemous cartoon. He was accused of insulting the Prophet of Islam by depicting him—and as a cat, no less.

"It was a conversation between an old man and a young boy. The old man asked what the boy's name was, and the boy answered "Babu." The old man said that the boy had to use "Muhammad" in front of his name, as is the custom among Muslims in Bangladesh. Then the man asked what the cat's name was, and the boy replied, "Muhammad Cat." This is a well-known joke in Bangladesh, and no story I have invented myself. But it was my idea to draw it. The day after it was published, I was arrested." - Arifur Rahman on the cartoon that got him sentenced

Arifur was detained for several months before his case finally went to the Supreme Court, who cleared his name and allowed his release. But Arifur fled to Norway when it became clear he was no longer safe in Bangladesh. His local mosque's imam accused him of conspiring with Jyllands-Posten cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, who had drawn Muhammad a few years prior, and the last straw was seeing his name on a hit list alongside that of Salman Rushdie.

Arifur has lived in the town of Drøbak ever since being accepted as a refugee. He would later learn, after all the dust settled, that he had been sentenced in absentia to a year in prison despite the Supreme Court's acquittal.

Today, Arifur continues to draw. On International Women's Day in 2016, he led an art exhibition on women's rights in Drøbak to honor his mother, who he says never had the chance for a good life in Bangladesh.