بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّحِيمِ
In the name of Allah, The Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful
اَلْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَـٰلَمِينَ
All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of all worlds of beings
اللهم صَلِّ وَسَلِّمْ عَلَىٰ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَىٰ آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ وَبَارِكْ وَسَلِّمْ
Oh Allah, we ask you to send prayers, blessings and peace upon our leader, Muhammed, his family and companions
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is a writer, poet, playwright and public educator based in the north of England. She works to disrupt dominant understandings of history, race, knowledge and violence, whilst equipping herself and others with the tools and faith to resist the unliveable conditions we find ourselves in today, and work towards another reality.
Suhaiymah debut play, Peanut Butter and Blueberries, performed at Kiln Theatre in London in August 2024. Her latest book, Seeing for Ourselves: And even stranger possibilities came out with Hajar Press in September 2023. Prior to this she authored the widely acclaimed book, Tangled in Terror: Uprooting Islamophobia (Pluto Press, 2022) and her debut poetry collection Postcolonial Banter (Verve Poetry Press, 2019) which both critique narratives about racism, systemic Islamophobia, the function of the nation-state and secularist visions of identity.
Suhaiymah has written for The Guardian, Independent, Al-Jazeera, and gal-dem, hosted the Breaking Binaries podcast (on hiatus), and has essays in multiple anti-racist anthologies including I Refuse To Condemn (2020) and Cut From The Same Cloth? (2021) as well as her co-authored debut work, A Fly Girl’s Guide to University: Being women of colour at Cambridge and other institutions of power and elitism (2019) which was written with Odelia Younge, Lola Olufemi and Audrey Sebatindira.
Suhaiymah’s poetry and prose has appeared across radio and TV stations for many years, especially since her viral poem This is Not a Humanising Poem which placed her as runner-up of the National Roundhouse Poetry Slam in 2017 gained two million views online. She was resident writer at the Leeds Playhouse (2021-22), and a Visiting Research Fellow in the School of Geography at Queen Mary University of London (2020-22). Suhaiymah was selected for the Royal Court 2021 Writers Group and has written multiple short pieces for theatre prior to her debut play in 2024. Suhaiymah is also an active member of the Geographies of Embodiment (GEM) research collective and very active co-founder of abolitionist group and volunteer collective working in solidarity with Muslims in prison, The Nejma Collective.
“Oh you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest you swerve, and if you distort justice or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well-acquainted with all that you do.” - Quran, Surah al-Nisa: 135