Seminar on The Passion
and Death of Rahman the Kurd: Dreaming Kurdistan
Speaker: Ms Carol
Prunhuber, journalist and author of the book “The Passion and
Death of Rahman the Kurd: Dreaming Kurdistan”
Date/time: 7th June
2010, 18:00
Venue: G2, School of
Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
Nearest tube station:
Russell Square, Thornhaugh Street, Russell
Square, LondonWC1H 0XG
Organised by Kurdish
Society at SOAS (KSSOAS) and Kurdish Studies and Students
Organisation (KSSO)
Seminar abstract
Ms Carol Prunhuber, a
Venezuelan author and journalist explores the life of the legendary
Kurdish leader, Dr Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou in her book titled “The
Passion and Death of Rahman the Kurd: Dreaming Kurdistan”. Dr
Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou “was a visionary and cultivated leader of
the Iranian Kurdish revolutionary movement and a respected
interlocutor for the West. He brought the concepts of democracy to
his country. Educated in Paris and Prague with a PhD in
Economy, he spoke eight languages. Beloved by his people, Ghassemlou
was ahead of his time, leading a movement to oppose the theocratic
regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini for ten years.” (from The
Passion and Death of Rahman the Kurd ). Dr Ghassemlou was
assassinated by the agents of Islamic Republic of Iran on July 13th
1989 in Vienna, Austria where Dr Ghassemlou was holding secret talks
on negotiating a supposed peaceful solution of the Iran's Kurdish
question with Iranian envoys sent by then Iranian president Akbar
Hashemi Rafsanjani.
The Assassins were not
punished for their terrorist crime by “Austrian democratic law
state”. “Soon after his untimely murder, responsibility was
directed towards Iran; yet no one was ever tried or punished for the
crime. To this day, many unanswered questions remain” (from The
Passion and Death of Rahman the Kurd )
The author states that
"It was in Paris, in 1983, that I first met Dr Abdul Rahman
Ghassemlou. We were introduced at the Kurdish Institute, where I was
attending an exhibition with the Kurdish filmmaker Yilmaz Guney and
his wife, Fatos Guney
After our meeting in
Paris, Ghassemlou invited me to come to Kurdistan. Two years later, I
arrived there alongside the French Gamma TV crew to film the Kurdish
conflict in Iran. The seed for this book was planted at that time."
Please join KSSO in
this important seminar to hear the words of a journalist who actually
witnessed the struggles of Kurds in the mountains of Kurdistan. Ms
Carol Prunhuber has kindly accepted our invitation to come and talk
about her journey to Kurdistan and her friendship with Dr Ghassemlou.
