The Language of the Prisoner AN INTERVIEW WITH SUHAIYMAH MANZOOR- KHAN FIZZAH MANSOOR SHANZAY SETHI AND A TEAM OF COLLABORATORS
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uhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is a British spoken word artist who writes about the experiences of Muslims in the west. She, and her poem “This is not a Humanizing Poem” was featured by Amnesty International in its directory of “inspiring poets and incredible poems.” Suhaiymah has also recently published a collection of her poems named “Postcolonial Banter.”
The TMV had a chance of interviewing her. We talked about her poetry, her activism and her unapologetic critique of modern society. An abriged and paraphrased version of that interview is being published here.
TMV: Your website starts with a verse from Surah Nisa stipulating the need to stand up for justice even if it goes against one’s family, whether it is against the rich or the poor. That is a very powerful message. What does it mean for you to stand up for justice? Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan (SMK): The ayah is something I find really intense because the idea of submitting to Allah is so powerful in itself and that comes with a set of responsibilities. In today’s time it is much more important because we have access to resources that can help us decide what side of the coin we want to take and for me it is important to stand up with the ‘haq’ so that injustice can be exposed. As a Muslim it is a responsibility that is constantly mentioned in the Quran as well.
I definitely feel that this a fundamental form of communicating, sharing, producing knowledge and talking about things that are more likely controversial. Speech is something that is a form of dialogue and that form of communication is happening with the audience so wherever there is speech there is a listener. And I see that as a political act that you can always choose to either keep quiet or speak out the truth. For me I came to a country watching slam poetry and I have always seen poetry as a language of the prisoner, the marginalised, but for me it is also the language of the Arabs and the Quran.
TMV: How did you get involved in the spoken word scene; was it just a chance encounter or was it always there, perhaps writing, as a hobby before it became official?
TMV: Even before university, but especially in university, where we have a chance to live outside the bubble of the community we grew up in, a lot of us struggle to find a place for ourselves in the midst of a society built upon very different principles than those of ourselves. Your first work I had a chance to listen to, “This is not a Humanising Poem,” I found it moving in this regard. When you say,
SMK: I have always enjoyed reading and writing, like Matilda was like my favourite story. I always wrote but around in my teens I discovered prose and poetry and then started to write it. During my second year of university I was going through this patch and got signed up for an open mic. From then on there is no looking back. I got pulled into it and found it as a perfect way to express my thoughts and opinions with no academia pressure pilling onto me.
Love us when we’re lazy Love us when we’re poor Love us in our back-to-backs, council estates, depressed, unwashed and weeping, Love us high as kites, unemployed, joyriding, time-wasting, failing at school because if you need me to prove my humanity, I’m not the one that’s not human
TMV: Campus activism, and within that the Artists, have traditionally been on the forefront of - quote end-quote “radical” - political activism, be it song writers whose songs have political undertones, or authors whose novels highlight social ills or even comedians who satirize the absurdity of power. Art has, at times, been the forefront of speaking truth to power. Would you say that for you spoken word serves a similar purpose?
I think it really strikes a chord by sending out the message that we are normal people and even if the way we act is different, that is no excuse for anyone to disrespect us. It is a powerful message. What was the inspiration behind this?
SMK: Definitely, spoken word does. The thing about spoken word for cultures especially like ours that aren’t European, is an uninitialized way of serving the broader community with our cultures, identities, geopolitical factors and creating a way to tell our unheard struggles. 24| THE MUSLIM VOICE | NOVEMBER 2019 | XXV
SMK: It is a bit complicated for me. When there is an act of violence by Muslims, we are essentially asked to prove our loyalty and distance ourselves from the perpetrators. It is this idea that our humanity is conditional based on our proofs of loyalty we can provide; and this is something we often end up doing to fit in. My argument is that we should not do that because it perpetuates the belief that there are
