Dr. Muhammad Qasim Sowjai (spelled as سهوجهیی), also known as Dr. Rebwar, 1936 Aug – 1981 Dec was a Kurdish literature, poetry, and linguistic expert who served many years as a teacher in Mahabad, Teheran, Tabriz, and Urmia.
Dr. Sowjai was born into a clergy family. His father, Mala Ali, was the Imam for Haci Ahmad mosque in Mahabad and his mother, Rabea Saadati, daughter of a known cleric in Mokryan.
Dr. Sowjai began primary school at the age of 6 by attending Saadat School, a school founded by the short-lived Kurdish Autonomous Republic of Mahabad. Due to the destruction and toppling of the Mahabad Republic by the Iranian monarchy, Sowjai’s father was deported from the city. It is known that Mala Ali was one of the few imams in Mahabad who refused to put his signature under the verdict to execute Qazi Muhammad, the President of the Republic. Consequently, Mala Ali was “recommended” by the Iranian military office in Mahabad to leave the city to avoid prosecution and retaliations, which he did before the execution of Qazi Muhamad.
Mala Ali moved to Shno and the young Sowjai’s schooling was interrupted. Eventually, he attended a religious school in the area. After graduating from the religious school, he became the imam to a mosque in Qaradagh, a small village near Mahabad. In this village he married Ayshe Sharaf Rohani, daughter of Muhammad Sharaf Rohani, principal of schools in Laj and Daralak, two small villages near Mahabad. After a couple of years Sowjai moved to Mahabad as the Imam to Saadi Mosque and started employment as high school teacher in theological and literature subjects. After a couple of years, Mr. Sowjai passed the Concurs exams with highest marks and was admitted to Tehran University and Bachelor of Arts in Literature and Linguistic. After graduation from Tehran University, Mr. Sowjai was admitted to the Master level at Tabriz University and moved to Tabriz, where he was working as high school teacher in literature and linguistic at Ferdosi high school, one of the best educational institutes in Iran. A couple of years later Mr. Sowjai received his doctorate degree from Tabriz University.
In 1977, Mr. Sowjai and his family moved back to Mahabad, where he served as a teacher at Teachers Training College in Mahabad. At the same time, he was serving as a part time professor at Abu Rayhan Biruni University in Urmia in literature and linguistic faculty.
Dr. Sowjai joined the popular uprising for democracy in Iran in 1977 that resulted in toppling of the monarchy on February 1979, and unfortunately establishment of a more repressive and anti-democratic regime, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
In 1979, the Kurds in many cities put together councils of their representatives for ruling the cities. In Mahabad Dr. Sowjai was then elected to the city council. In his role, he was instrumental in saving many lives from the repressive Revolution Guard of the Islamic regime, when the war between the Kurds and the regime erupted, and the Islamic regime imposed an unfair, brutal, and barbaric war on the Kurds. Dr. Sowjai together with other city representatives rescued many lives, and gathered dead bodies of the Kurds from the streets of Mahabad. To prevent further bloodshed, Dr. Sowjai, along with some other people from Mahabad, tried to put the parties at the negotiating table. He was instrumental in the creation of a ceasefire and the attempted peace talks between the armed Kurdish political parties and the Islamic Republic. However, the negotiations were abruptly stopped by the regime and all the Kurdish cities were attacked.
In 1981 Dr. Sowjai was arrested in front of his home in Mahabad and imprisoned for three months. He was eventually executed on December 16th 1981 along with 12 other persons from the city of Mahabad by a firing squad in Urmia prison. This was done without trial and only as retaliation and revenge, a heinous violation of human rights and respect for life, which will always be remembered by Dr. Sowjai’s friends and family. Let us hope that those behind this and other heinous crimes against the Kurds will be brought to justice in the near future.
