Archiving and Documenting Resistance: A Conversation with Dr Omar Sheikhmous

The Centre for Kurdish Studies and the Digital Archive of the Middle East (DAME) project are delighted to invite you to our next event.

Between 2007 and 2011 Omar Sheikhmous generously donated a large collection of personal papers, books and periodicals to the University of Exeter that reflect and record a lifetime’s involvement in Kurdish political and academic activities. A prolific author, lecturer, and broadcaster, Sheikhmous has made an enormous contribution to Kurdish studies over the last four decades, but he has also been closely involved with political activism in Kurdistan. His archive offers a uniquely-detailed insiders’ perspective on the formation and activities of major Kurdish political bodies in Iraq, Syria and Iran, including the PUK, KDP, KDPI and Iraqi Communist Party – as well as numerous smaller groups, students’ organisations and exile associations. His archive also includes rare documents and personal correspondence with the likes of Jalal Talabani, Kemal Fuad, Fuad Masoum and other leading political and cultural figures.

In this conversation we explore the constitution of his archive, and discuss challenges of archiving resistance movements, the intersection of activism and archival practice, and archiving as resistance. Read more about his archive.

Short Biography:

Born in Amouda in the Kurdish areas of Syria (Aldjazira), Omar Sheikhmous studied International relations, Political Science and International Politics at the Universities of London and Stockholm. He has published extensively on the Kurds, human rights, migration and Islam. During his student years, he was a member of the executive committee of the “Kurdish Students’ Society in Europe” and the editor of its English-language magazine, “Kurdistan”. After graduation, he was a lecturer in political science at Stockholm University and a lecturer/researcher of International Migration and Ethnic Relations. He also taught special courses on religion, society and politics in the Middle East. He was Member of the Board of the University of HTU in Sweden, Member of Swedish PEN, and founding member of the Swedish Committee for the Human Rights of the Kurds “SKKMR”, 1989- 1995. In the 1960, 70s & 80s, he assisted Kurdish resistance movements in Iran and Iraq and was editor of some of their newspapers in Kurdish, Arabic and English. He is one of the founders of PUK in 1975 and member of its leadership organs, including the political bureau in charge of foreign relations until 1986. For a number of years, together with his Swedish wife, Agneta, he joined the ranks of the Kurdish Pesh Mergas (partisans) who fought the regime of Saddam Hussein for Kurdish self-government in Iraq. Omar joined the Kurdish Service of the VOA as Senior Editor in 2001 and in 2005 became Chief of the Kurdish Service until 2007. He has acted as Personal Advisor to President of Iraq, Jelal Talabani, 2007-2012, and Advisor to the Chairman of the Syrian National Council, 2012, among other roles.