Professor Kamal Hamad Bayez Khoshnow

President of Sulaimani University (1999-2004) Professor Kamal Khoshnow (Kemal Xoshnaw) was born in Shaqlawa (Sheqllawe) to a wealthy and traditional (tribal) family. A passionate and patriotic Kurd, he became a political activist for Kurdish human rights from his early teens. He traveled to Yugoslavia to obtain his PhD in Agriculture in1968. In the same year, he returned to Kurdistan and was appointed as a member of the faculty in the newly established University of Suleimani (Silémaní). He was forced to abandon university life in 1974 when he became a Peshmarga (Péshmerge) and joined the armed movement of 1974-5. He remained in the mountains of Kurdistan till the bitter end of the war. In the summer of 1975, he joined the Patriotic Union Of Kurdistan (PUK) and became a member of its Politburo. He soon returned to the mountains of Kurdistan and was wounded seriously in one of the battles. He moved back to the academic life in 1995 at the University of Salahaddin in Hawler (Hewlér). In 1996, he became Dean of the College of Agriculture in Suleimani University and was appointed President of the same University in 1999. He remained in this post until his final days when he passed away on 12th Dec 2004 as a result of a malignant condition.

Dr Kamal will be remembered as the faithful Kurd who served his country in more than one way. As a Peshmarga, he fought in the mountains of Kurdistan against the Ba'thist rule; as an academic, he fought for his students and colleagues; and as an academic leader, he fought for the independence of the University a