Jawhar Namiq Salim was born in 1946 in Barlut village of Kalar district (Garmian administration center) in a patriotic family. His family was involved in the Kurdish political struggle. His father was a member of Hiwa Party in Garmian. Jawhar Namiq joined the Kurdistan Students Union in his youth and began his political and organizational work there. He was known as an active member of the organization.
In the early 1970s, Jawhar Namiq joined the ranks of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in the September Revolution. He later became the administrator of the third branch of the KDP. From then on, he became more trusted by his friends and comrades, especially by the Mullah Mustafa Barzani.
After the collapse of the September Revolution in 1975, Jawhar Namiq became one of those people who were worried about and affected by the collapse of the revolution. This led him to prepare and write about the causes of the decline and to resume the revolution. On the request of Mullah Mustafa Barzani, he and several comrades were one of those who started to revive the revolution under the name of the interim leadership. Therefore, on 26-5-1976, the May Revolution was declared in Kurdistan. At that time, Jawhar Namiq was known as Salim Sorani among his comrades. The first statement of the May Revolution was prepared by Jawhar Namiq entitled “Kurdistan is the real arena of struggle”.
From then on, Jawhar Namiq received several positions and responsibilities in the ranks of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (PDK), including a member of the central committee, a member of the political bureau.
Jawhar Namiq became the first speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament after the first elections on 19-5-1992 and in the first session of the parliament on June 4. He remained as the speaker until 1999.
In addition to passing several laws and decisions during his parliamentary career, the most prominent of which is the issuance of the federal law for the Kurdistan Region on 4-10-1992, the flag law of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region on 11-11-1999, asylum in parliament for 103 days, he and his fifty-eight fellow parliamentarians were against the civil war and the establishment of peace and against the intervention of the invaders to facilitate this incorruptible war.
After the Iraqi liberation process in April 2003, Jawhar Namiq left political activities, especially in the ranks of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Despite leaving the party, he became a serious critic and constantly tried to reform the party and government. He devoted part of his life to writing and reading carefully. After the formation of the Gorran Movement, he often supported the work of the opposition in Kurdistan and considered it a new model of political work. Although he graduated from the College of Economics in Baghdad, he has written several books, including Is federalism as a political option in Iraq, the Kurdish experience in its pendulum movement, the Kurds in the game of legal texts.
Jawhar Namiq died of liver cancer in Sweden on #22-03-2011# after spending a lifetime in armed, political, parliamentary struggle, criticism and writing.
He is survived by two sons and a daughter. His body was brought back to his hometown of Barlut in Garmian and buried in a dignified ceremony. On #17-04-2012#, a ceremony was held in Barlut cemetery on the anniversary of the death of the first speaker of parliament in the presence of a number of party and government officials.[1]