The Muslim, State and Mind
A conversation between:
Tarek Younis
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan
04/11/2023
14:00 – 17:00
ICF @ Block 336
336 Brixton Road
London SW9 7AA
Description
This conversation between Dr Tarek Younis and Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, will explore how mental health is positioned as the cure-all for society’s discontents, from pandemics to terrorism. But psychology and psychiatry are not apolitical, and neither are Muslims. The Muslim, State and Mind is a book that unpacks where the politics of the psy-disciplines and the politics of Muslims overlap, demonstrating how psychological theories and practices serve state interests and perpetuate inequality – especially racism and Islamophobia. Viewing the psy-disciplines from the margins, this book illustrates how these necessarily serve the state in the production of loyal, low-risk and productive citizens, offering a modern discussion of three paradigms underlying the psy-disciplines: neoliberalism, security and the politics of mental health.
This event will be BSL interpreted.
Biographies
Dr Tarek Younis is a cultural and critical clinical psychologist, and currently a lecturer in Psychology at Middlesex University. His previous research explored the racialisation of Muslims as a result of statutory counter-terrorism policies in mental health. He has written on Western Muslim identities; Islamophobia; the securitisation and racism of mental health; and how Muslims are increasingly marginalised through “colourblind” policies that do not target them explicitly. He teaches on the impact of culture, religion, globalisation and security policies on mental health interventions.
Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan is a poet and writer whose work confronts assumptions about history, race, violence and knowledge. She has eight years of experience facilitating creative workshops in communities up and down the country, using poetry to assist communities in shaping their vision for what living safely on our own terms, instead of the state’s, looks like. She is the author of Seeing for Ourselves: and even stranger possibilities, Tangled in Terror: Uprooting Islamophobia and the poetry collection Postcolonial Banter. She is also co-author of A FLY Girl’s Guide to University, and a contributor to the anthologies Cut From the Same Cloth? and I Refuse to Condemn. She is a co-founder of the Nejma Collective, a group of Muslims working in solidarity with people in prison. Suhaiymah is based in Leeds and is currently writing for theatre.
