Breaking Binaries

Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan

Every episode Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is joined by a different guest to discuss and deconstruct two seemingly oppositional ideas (innocent/guilty, radical/moderate, secular/religious etc). In doing this we consider if things are really so simple, or if seemingly commonsensical binaries actually hides, obscures or allows for much more complicated political dynamics.

  1. 27/02/2021

    Necolonial/Postcolonial with Vanessa Tsehaye

    In Episode 9 of Season 2, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan breaks down the binary of Neocolonial and Postcolonial states with Vanessa Tsehaye. Vanessa Tsehaye is an Eritrean human rights activist who was born and raised in Sweden. She founded the organisation One Day Seyoum when she was in high school to continue the work of her uncle Seyoum Tsehaye, a journalist who has been imprisoned without a trial in Eritrea since 2001. One Day Seyoum is today one of the largest youth organisations fighting against human rights abuses committed against the Eritrean people, both still in the country and after they flee. She holds a law degree from SOAS, University of London and currently serves as Amnesty International’s campaigner for the Horn of Africa. In this episode Vanessa helps dismantle the reductive way formerly colonised states are seen. How do the ways we glorify postcolonial states or condemn necolonial relations impact the people on the ground? Through her work to better the lives of Eritreans we unpicked the rhetoric that hides human rights abuses and obscures the displacement of so many people made refugees and harmed by borders. We ask what criteria we should use to extend support for states across the world, and how might we better understand dynamics of statehood? For more information on One Day Seyoum's Eritrean Refugee Centre click here. To read the transcript of this episode instead, follow this link: https://www.suhaiymah.com/breaking-binaries-transcripts.

    1 hr
  2. 09/01/2021

    Victim/Perpetrator with Kristen Cherry

    In Episode 6 of Season 2, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan discusses the binary of Victim and Perpetrator with Kristen Cherry. Kristen is a survivor advocate and a movement worker based in Louisville, Kentucky, in the USA. She worked at her local domestic violence/sexual assault crisis center for 2 ½ years, counseling survivors in shelter, over the crisis line, and through the court process after filing for civil protection orders. Kristen is currently involved in community organising efforts in Louisville as protests continue following the police killing of Breonna Taylor in 2020,  that has included co-coordinating a protest arrest hotline, which provides support to protestors facing charges and connects them with free legal support.  In this episode Kristen helped to shed light on the ways victim/perpetrator hides the contexts that produce violence, and enables them to go uninterrogated. Should violence be understood as an inherent part of someone, and equally, should being victim to it? How can we center survivors and healing, as well as create outcomes that lead to accountability and justice rather than merely offer incarceration as the solution to violence?  The book mentioned by Kristen is Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement. ed. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Ejeris Dixon. To read the transcript of this episode instead, follow this link: https://www.suhaiymah.com/breaking-binaries-transcripts.

    1 hr
  3. 26/12/2020

    Disability/Ability with Anamika Misra

    In Episode 4 of Season 2, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan discusses the binary of Disability and Ability with Anamika Misra. Anamika is an Autistic PhD researcher and Assistant Lecturer at Kent Law School. She has previously been involved in the Decolonise the Curriculum Project at Kent and organises with precarious staff and students of colour across a range of social justice issues. Though she’s supposed to have academic expertise in the law of armed conflict and human rights, she finds the language of expertise problematic and prefers to say she’s interested in learning about race, colonialism, disability, sexuality and gender. This episode's discussion sees Anamika help to break down how the binary of disability and ability is constructed - historically, and ideologically; the ways it is rooted in ideas of human value in relation to capital; how this means we only value ability in relation to capitalistic "value"; how this binary homogenises so many varied experiences into two boxes; and what it would look like to focus more on changing structural and societal dynamics that disable people.  The resources mentioned by Anamika are as follows: - The Harriet Tubman Collective, @HTCSolidarity on Twitter - Their statement on disability solidarity -  The Black Disability Collective,@BlackDisability on Twitter - Autistic Tyla - Aucademy   To read the transcript of this episode instead, follow this link: https://www.suhaiymah.com/breaking-binaries-transcripts.

    48 min
5
out of 5
32 Ratings

About

Every episode Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is joined by a different guest to discuss and deconstruct two seemingly oppositional ideas (innocent/guilty, radical/moderate, secular/religious etc). In doing this we consider if things are really so simple, or if seemingly commonsensical binaries actually hides, obscures or allows for much more complicated political dynamics.