Within the context of family Soraya wanted to examine her own cultural displacement with that of her parents. With an Iranian and Pakistani heritage, adopted by an English couple her childhood experience in a small village in Somerset was a world away from her cultural heritage. Her appearance and the fact her parents were themselves very different from the provincial surroundings they inhabited, compounded a feeling of not belonging, that she was living on the side lines of the world she inhabited.

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On the passing of her parents, Soraya inherited many objects, primarily from her mother's family, who were colonialists living in India and the middle east. These objects were at first very difficult to engage with, there was a deep sense of alienation in that they belonged to her mother's heritage not hers. This in itself brought questions on Soraya personal identity and she began to explore and reconcile herself with the objects by engaging  with them in her work.