Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan

Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is a British spoken word poet, writer and speaker, known for her poem "This Is Not a Humanising Poem" and writing about life as a Muslim woman in England on her site, The Brown Hijabi.

Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan
BornBradford, Yorkshire, England
OccupationSpoken-word poet
LanguageEnglish
NationalityEnglish
Alma materQueens' College, Cambridge
Years active2014–present
Website
suhaiymah.com

Early life

Khan was born in Bradford to second-generation British-Pakistani parents,[1] and raised in Leeds.[2][3] She attended Queen's College at Cambridge University[4] where she studied History. She subsequently completed a Master of Arts at London's School of Oriental and African Studies in Postcolonial Studies.[5] Her thesis focused on how Muslims, particularly Pakistanis like herself, are targets of the British surveillance state.[6]

Work

Manzoor-Khan has contributed to and written for several news outlets, including The Independent,[7][8] 5PillarsUK.com,[9] New Internationalist,[10] Amaliah.com,[11] Al-Jazeera[12] and Sister-hood.[13] She has appeared on radio stations including BBC Radio 4,[14][15] BBC Asian Network,[16] the Muslim Vibe[17] and Wandsworth Radio's She Speaks with Katy Davis.[18]

She has her own blog, thebrownhijabi, which she regularly updates with articles, blogposts, media appearances and podcasts.[3][19] She has also appeared in features for Middle East Eye,[20] The Guardian[21][22] and HuffPost.[19]

She mostly focuses on Islamophobia, decolonisation, religion, politics, gender and race in her writing and performances.

Poetry slam

In 2017, Manzoor-Khan performed at The Last Word Festival in London's Roundhouse Poetry Slam, winning the competition with her poem "This is not a Humanising Poem". Her performance of the poem, which spoke about how the world values Muslims based on how 'good' or 'bad' they are considered to be,[23] went viral after being posted on the Roundhouse's Facebook page.[24][25] Her performance has since been viewed more than 2 million times online.[26]

2018 and later

Following her performance at The Last Word Festival, Manzoor-Khan received more publicity and opportunities to showcase her work. Describing the period since her performance, she has said, "That sort of publicity was something I couldn't have imagined and it's given me opportunities to genuinely pursue this as an art form." [26]

She returned to The Last Word Festival in 2018 with her performance entitled "LOL, Inshaallah".[27][26] The performance is based on Manzoor-Khan's experiences and insights into the complexities and challenges British Muslim women often face.

In April 2018, Manzoor-Khan joined a group of female playwrights to create a series of plays to be distributed free of charge to the public. The plays centered around the theme of female empowerment and movements.[28]

In August 2018, she appeared in a video for The Guardian, titled "One person can matter", in which she provided viewers with five ways they could fight for their cause and stay motivated in the process.[29] The feature was part of a takeover of the Weekend issue by guest editors from Gal-dem.[29]

In December 2018, she was a panellist for a discussion on how heritage and gender can impact writers' work, held by British Asian Women Writers in the North.[30]

In January 2019. Manzoor-Khan published the book A FLY Girl's Guide to University with co-authors Lola Olufemi, Odelia Younge and Waithera Sebatindira.[31] The book focused on their experiences being women of colour at the University of Cambridge; the title refers to FLY, the university's network for women and non-binary people of colour.

In February 2019, Manzoor-Khan appeared in a video for Middle East Eye titled "Citizenship can be weaponised" in which she addresses the potential repercussions of the government decision to revoke Shamima Begum's British citizenship.[20]

In September 2019, Manzoor-Khan published her first poetry collection, Postcolonial Banter, with Verve Poetry Press.[32]

TEDx Talks

In 2017, Manzoor-Khan was a speaker at the TEDxYouth@Brum event in Birmingham where she performed a poem titled "Funeral of the Authentic Muslim Woman", in which she rejects the idea "that there is only one way to be a Muslim woman," highlighting the complexities and contradictions that exist within everyone, including Muslim women.[33][34]

In 2018, she gave a speech at TEDxCoventGardenWomen in London titled "I'm Bored of Talking about Muslim Women". In her speech, she asked the audience, "Why are we so fascinated with Muslim women at all?" She continued by saying, "The usual conversations about Muslim women focus on what we wear, our bodies and our behaviour, seeing us mainly as victims of sexism," and explaining that such narratives are rarely helpful for Muslim women.[33][35] On the same topic, Manzoor-Khan has said that she believes there to be "a disparity between their [Muslim women's] voices and the voices that are platformed…I think it's because there are certain stories that the media likes to see and that Western audiences want to hear and they're generally victim narratives."[36]

Works
  • Olufemi, Lola; Younge, Odelia; Sebatindira, Waithera; Manzoor-Khan, Suhaiymah (24 January 2019). A FLY girl's guide to university : being a woman of colour at Cambridge and other institutions of power and elitism. Birmingham, England: Verve Poetry Press. ISBN 1912565145.
  • Suhaiymah, Manzoor-Khan (19 September 2019). Postcolonial banter. Birmingham, England: Verve Poetry Press. ISBN 1912565242.

References
  1. "How Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is 'using Quranic storytelling' to revive poetry for a new age". The National. 19 November 2019.
  2. Taft, Liam (7 July 2017). "Friday Poem: Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan – This Is Not A Humanising Poem". The National Student. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  3. "The Brown Hijabi". thebrownhijabi.com. 21 June 2015.
  4. Adeluwoye, Daniella (23 Jan 2019). "A FLY Girl's Guide to University: "Giving women of colour something to read that better reflects their world"". Varsity Online. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  5. "Alumna Spotlight: Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (2013) - Queens' College". Queens' College, Cambridge. 24 Aug 2017.
  6. Yasmin, Seema (2020). Muslim women are everything : stereotype-shattering stories of courage, inspiration, and adventure. Azim, Fahmida. New York, NY: Harper Design - HarperCollins. pp. 35–37. ISBN 978-0-06-294703-1. OCLC 1135224567.
  7. Manzoor-Khan, Suhaiymah (24 August 2016). "White people of France: being forced to undress wasn't the liberation I wanted". The Independent. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  8. Manzoor-Khan, Suhaiymah (9 September 2017). "Let me take a wild guess as to why Muslims are overrepresented in prison". The Independent.
  9. Manzoor-Khan, Suhaiymah (24 February 2019). "Everybody wants to be 'woke' but who wants to be honest?". 5pillarsuk.com. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  10. Manzoor-Khan, Suhaiymah (20 November 2018). "Why we need Islamophobia Awareness Month". New Internationalist. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  11. Manzoor-Khan, Suhaiymah (18 July 2018). "The Objectification and Reduction of Muslim Women at Protests. Everyone "Loves" a Muslim on a March, but Who Loves Us on the Train Home?". Amaliah. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  12. Manzoor-Khan, Suhaiymah. "The story of British Pakistani men, told by a native informant". Al Jazeera.
  13. Manzoor-Khan, Suhaiymah (28 March 2017). "Nothing 'neutral' about the hijab ban". Sister-hood. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  14. "Theresa May will demand cabinet unity". BBC Radio 4. 17 July 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  15. "How to be a Muslim Woman, Episode 1: Patriarchy: now that's a British value". BBC Radio 4. 16 Nov 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  16. "Asian Network's Big Debate, Poet Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan challenges perceptions of Muslims". BBC Asian Network. 10 July 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  17. "Radio & Audio". thebrownhijabi.com. 14 May 2018.
  18. Davis, Katy. "She Speaks with Katy Davis". Mixcloud.
  19. Manzoor-Khan, Suhaiymah (5 July 2017). "Muslim Slam Poet: 'If You Need Me To Prove My Humanity, I'm Not The One Who's Not Human'". HuffPost. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  20. Mahmoud, Osha; Al-Shamahi, Aaya (26 February 2019). "Muslim Slam Poet: 'If You Need Me To Prove My Humanity, I'm Not The One Who's Not Human'". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  21. Cowan, Leah (11 August 2018). "'I believe everything we are fighting for is possible': young activists talk tactics". The Guardian.
  22. Fraser, Giles (6 July 2017). "I applaud British Islam's refusal to bow to the establishment - Giles Fraser: Loose canon". The Guardian.
  23. Hamid, Sadek (14 Sep 2018). "Love, politics and patriarchy: British Muslim women are taking back their narrative". Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
  24. Aziz, Shaista (21 December 2017). "A very merry Muslim Christmas: the slogan for 'good' Muslims - Shaista Aziz". The Guardian.
  25. Brown, Jessica (6 July 2017). "Muslim slam poet wows crowd with inspirational message". Indy 100. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  26. Paskett, Zoe (6 June 2018). "Get your spoken word fix at the Roundhouse's Last Word Festival". Evening Standard. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  27. "LOL, inshaAllah". Roundhouse (venue). 16 June 2018.
  28. Thompson, Jessie (30 April 2018). "Female writers unite to write free plays about power". Evening Standard. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  29. Scotland, Shanida; Turner, James; Stefanou, Eleni (11 August 2018). "'One person can matter': five ways to fight for your cause – video". The Guardian.
  30. Macnamara, Felicity (30 Dec 2018). "Kala Sangam to host British Asian Women Writers in the North panel discussion". Telegraph & Argus. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  31. "Lola Olufemi, Odelia Younge, Waithera Sebatindira, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan – A FLY Girl's Guide To University". Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  32. "Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan – Postcolonial Banter". Retrieved 2020-02-11.
  33. Rahman, Sami (7 March 2018). "Five of the most inspiring TED Talks by Muslim women". Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  34. "TEDxYouth@Brum - TED". TED (conference). 11 Oct 2017. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  35. Manzoor-Khan, Suhaiymah (15 December 2017). "TEDx Talks: 'I'm bored of talking about Muslim women'". 5pillarsuk.com. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
  36. Merali, Arzu (24 April 2018). "The 10 most important ways to counter Europe's anti-Muslim narratives". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 19 April 2019.
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