بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
I begin in the name of Allah, The Most Compassionate, The Most Merciful

ٱلْـحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ ٱلْعَـٰلَمِينَ
All praise is for Allah, the Lord of everything in existence

وَصَلَّى ٱللَّهُ عَلَىٰ سَيِّدِنَا مُحَمَّدٍ وَعَلَىٰ آلِهِ وَصَحْبِهِ أَجْمَعِينَ
I ask Allah to send His prayers and blessings on our leader, Prophet Muhammad, his family and companions

Poet, writer, educator, and author of Postcolonial Banter, Tangled in Terror, Seeing for Ourselves, and the play, Peanut Butter & Blueberries.

Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan

Publications:

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Seeing for Ourselves: And Even Stranger Possibilities
(September 2023, Hajar Press)

Why do we yearn to be seen when we are already far too visible? How do we want to be perceived, and how are we exposed? Could we ever really see for ourselves?

In memoir, vignettes, poetry and essays, Suhaiymah records her observations from the stands at the dizzying circus of being seen and unseen. She surveys the criminalising stadium of civic life, the open-air arenas of family, friendship and grief, the performative pageantry of the public eye and the unclad secrets of the self in solitude, paying attention to what’s on show and what goes undetected.

Perhaps the strangest, most exciting possibilities are opened when we surrender to another kind of sight. Submitting to the gaze of the Unseen and the All-Seeing, Manzoor-Khan invites us to close our eyes and discover what it would mean to look with our souls instead.

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  • ‘To read this expansive treasure of a book is to see everything differently.’

     — Sabrina Mahfouz, author of These Bodies of Water

  • ‘Moves the heart and provokes thought in equal measure.’

    — Preti Taneja, author of Aftermath

  • ‘A rare treat … we witness a profound thinker and remarkable poet at work.’

    — Arun Kundnani, author of What Is Antiracism?

  • ‘Utterly disruptive. With grace and vulnerability … Manzoor-Khan upends the conversation on representational politics.’

    — Waithera Sebatindira, author of Through an Addict’s Looking-Glass

  • “I have absolutely no idea how to describe this book... but just know that every single word spoke to my whole soul.”

    — Goodreads reviewer, Hana, (5 stars)

Peanut Butter & Blueberries
(premiere, August 2024, Kiln, London)

Hafsah and Bilal are not looking for love. She has her faith, her books, her dreams. Bilal…well he’s just trying to get through uni. Studying in London, far from their hometowns of Bradford and Birmingham, they find common ground over a peanut butter and blueberry sandwich. Just as their connection is growing, the past and social realities become harder to ignore. Between opportunities, obligations and injustices, will they be able to choose each other?

In her debut play, author, poet and educator Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan explores how to love when the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

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  • “A sun‑kissed love story tinged with tragedy… dialogue wonderfully captures the idiomatic tenor of everyday conversation between students… clearly a writer with real skill and ambition.”

     — The Telegraph

  • “Arrestingly unexpected… a two‑hander that doesn’t play out via rom-com rules… Manzoor‑Khan’s text carries salt and darting lyricism.”

    — The Guardian

  • “A rom-com that doesn’t require its characters to rebel against their culture, traditions or faith... a celebration of Muslim joy with nuance and authenticity.”

    — Amaliah

  • “Such a beautiful play. Just the kind of Muslim representation I was looking for. It was lovely to revisit and read the scenes that made me smile the most. And I may have shed a tear or two towards the end :’) I really hope we get to see another run, I’d love to watch it again.

    — Goodreads reviewer “Sim”

  • “Love how halal yet intimate the relationship remains. so well done and it didn't feel like it lacked anything (both the performance and text). will be coming back to this one again and again for sure.”

    — Goodreads reviewer, Abir

Tangled in Terror: Uprooting Islamophobia
(March 2022, Pluto Press)

Islamophobia is everywhere. It is a narrative and history woven so deeply into our everyday lives that we don’t even notice it – in our education, how we travel, our healthcare, legal system and at work. Behind the scenes it affects the most vulnerable, at the border and in prisons. Despite this, the conversation about Islamophobia is relegated to microaggressions and slurs.

Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan reveals how Islamophobia not only lives under the skin of those who it marks, but is an international political project designed to divide people in the name of security, in order to materially benefit global stakeholders. It can only be truly uprooted when we focus not on what it is but what it does.

Tangled in Terror shows that until the most marginalised Muslims are safe, nobody is safe.

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  • “Courageously makes explicit the implicit unfreedoms of our society.”

    —  Lowkey, Rapper and Activist

  • “This is the first time the breadth and depth of the Islamophobia we face has been collated in one place and analysed with such precision. It really feels like ‘our’ book.”

    —  Moazzam Begg, ex-Guantanamo detainee

  • “I am profoundly grateful to Suhaiymah Manzoor‑Khan for writing this book. It is brave. It is necessary. It is true. It is what we Muslims have been waiting for. A brilliant, powerful and moving account of Islamophobia…”

     —  Dr Nadine El‑Enany, author of (B)ordering Britain

  • “Conveys the trauma that is so often unspoken of in discussions of state enabled bigotry against Muslims, written with deep clarity.”

    —  Sheikh Omar Suleiman

  • “A fearless writer who cuts through nonsense. Suhaiymah’s voice is one of the most exciting of her generation.”

    —  Fatima Manji, Channel 4 News Journalist

  • “A surgical, unflinching account of the forces that have converged to cast Muslims as a permanent threat while profiting off our marginalisation.”

    —  Aamer Rahman, Writer and Comedian

Postcolonial Banter
(September 2019, Verve Poetry Press)

Postcolonial Banter is Suhaiymah’s debut collection. It features some of her most well-known and widely performed poems as well as some never-seen-before material. Her words are a disruption of comfort, a call to action, a redistribution of knowledge and an outpouring of dissent.

Whilst enraged and devastated by the world she finds herself in, in many ways that world is also the normalized and everyday reality of her life. Hence, whilst political and complex in nature, her poetry is also just the reality of life for her and others like her. Life in a world where structural violence is rife makes it a shared knowledge, and sometimes, when possible, that shared knowledge is the subversive in-joke, the bonding glance of solidarity, or the passing nod of affection used by those who know it to survive those structures themselves. This collection is first and foremostly for them.

Ranging from critiquing racism, systemic Islamophobia, the function of the nation-state and rejecting secularist visions of identity, to reflecting on the difficulty of writing and penning responses to conversations she wishes she’d had; Suhaiymah’s debut collection is ready and raring to enter the world. 

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  • “Suhaiymah’s courage to challenge the dictatorship of prevailing orthodoxy in our political moment inspires and liberates all who read her work... you are holding a piece of history in your hands.”

    — Lowkey, Rapper and Activist

  • “This is an at once brave and vulnerable, fierce and compassionate, angry and hopeful collection. From one of Britain’s most promising young voices, we get both sharp insights and an impassioned case for change. Read it.”

    —  Dr Priyamvada Gopal, Professor of Postcolonial Studies at Cambridge

  • “Culture is crucial to revolution and we need poetry like this to light a fire under the racial status quo. Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan has written the lyrics of rebellion for this restless generation.”

    — Dr Kehinde Andrews

  • Suhaiymah’s poems are a balm for the soul but they’re also a call. A call to reject the labels the world gives Muslim people and Muslim women. Her poems make you cry and make you angry and just invoke so many feelings. … I’m sure Postcolonial Banter is going to be the book I return to again and again and again and find new meanings and feelings every time I read it.

    —  Goodreads revieer, Fatima Moosa

Essays in:

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Workshops & Public Education

Suhaiymah has facilitated public education and creative writing workshops for almost a decade, in schools, community centers, mosques and likewise for Amnesty International, the V&A, arts festivals, museums, universities, and theatres.

Learn more

  • “Suhaiymah’s ability to guide the room through creative exercises and lift up every voice in the group meant all participants were able to create and share work they were proud of... sessions were planned with a huge amount of care, facilitating inspiring conversations on difficult topics.”

    Ezra Kingston, Community Co-Producer at Thackray Museum of Medicine

  • "Thank you so much for creating and facilitating such a wonderful workshop. A space to listen, share, and reflect with peers going through similar experiences was something I felt I really needed, and I appreciate all you did to make this happen.

    Participant from V&A East Workshop led by Suhaiymah & Alaa Alsaraji, Phytology London

  • "Social, political, engaging and a real call to action. We loved the workshop."

    Speakers Corner Collective, Bradford

  • "Thank you so much for this, I am still really thinking about this." & "The training has been enlightening....thank you so, so, so much."

    Amnesty UK staff members who attended Suhaiymah and Hareem Ghani’s Islamophobia workshops

  • "It was so clear the level of care and thought that had gone into the planning and I was really grateful to have been able to make it. It came for me at a very necessary time for sure."

    Participant from “Nourishing Ourselves” workshop, led by Suhaiymah & Alaa Alsaraji

Our Voices, Our Words:
On Our Own Terms Zine

A zine created with collaborator Natalie Tharraleos and
the Thackray Museum of Medicine in Leeds.
An anthology of poetry written by local people in workshops run between 2022-2025.
Read it now.

Publications from creative workshops

Nourishing Ourselves Zine

A zine created with collaborator Alaa Alsaraji from workshops run at Phytology, commissioned by Dr Suhraiya Jivraj, Reader in Law & Social Justice. Read it now.