Slamming Narratives: A Critical Analysis of Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan’s Slam Poetry

Abstract

Some popular literary feminist discourses have reduced Muslim woman’s identity to a homogenous monolithic entity devoid of her subjectivity and agency. Resultantly, Muslim women seem to be reduced to a stereotypical image of an oriental, marginalized entity, as these narratives are often employed to rationalize the violence in the third world. Over the years, slam poetry has become a popular medium of counterdiscourse against such problematic framing of Muslim women. This paper examines the slam poetry of Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan as a site of resistance against monolithic representations of Muslim women in both Western and cultural narratives. Situating her work within the post-9/11 socio-political context, the analysis draws on postcolonial and Muslim feminist theories to explore how Manzoor-Khan reclaims narrative authority through performative verse. Through close readings of “This Is Not a Humanizing Poem”, “A Story for Ourselves This Time”, and “Funeral of the Authentic Muslim Woman”, this paper highlights her subversion of Orientalist tropes, patriarchal scripts, and Western expectations of relatability. Manzoor-Khan’s poetry resists frameworks of respectability and authenticity, offering instead a defiant, pluralistic vision of Muslim womanhood. By using the slam stage as a political and poetic platform, she expands the possibilities for self-representation and collective storytelling.