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