Keyfi Abdullah Fathullah Shekhani
Personality: One of the founders of the Kurdistan Students and Youth Association after the 1991 uprising (first supervisor of the establishment of the Erbil branch of the Kurdistan Students and Youth Association).
Full name: Keyfi Abdullah Fathullah Kawes.
He was born in 1967 in the village of Greater Ilnjagh in Koya region. He completed his primary education in Ilnjagh village and secondary and high school education in Koya. In 1986, he was admitted to the Kurdish department of the College of Arts of Salahaddin University, but was expelled from the department the same year because he refused to become a Ba'athist. Because this year a decision was made that those who did not become Ba'athists should not study in the Kurdish department, so he was finally transferred to the geography department of the same college without his consent.
He was a long-time cadre of the Kurdistan Students Union, but after the Anfal and the situation in Kurdistan after 1988, there was no such thing as the Kurdistan Students Union as an organization. After 1991, Keyfi and several other students established the Kurdistan Students Association, which was initially called the Kurdistan Students and Youth Association, but later the youth was removed and became the Kurdistan Students Association. Therefore, we can consider Keyfi as one of the most important dynamos in the establishment of the Kurdistan Students Association after the 1991 spring uprising.
It is also impossible to talk about the student activities and movement of the College of Arts from 1988 to 1991 without mentioning Keyfi because he openly opposed the Ba'athist institutions and was constantly engaged in revolutionary activities and student movement. Therefore, he was constantly under strict surveillance by the security agencies. Because of this, he missed a year of school. Keyfi was also the founder of the committees formed after the uprising to protect Salahaddin University from theft and looting.
He was the founding member of the High Committee of Kurdistan Students after the uprising. During his student years, he was tortured for his political activities and student movement. If it were not for the uprising, he would have been executed because he was arrested by the Erbil security forces.
He tried hard to make the students' association independent and not belong to political parties, but party interference prevented the students' dream of independence from succeeding and they soon incorporated it into the party. However, after 1996, he retired from politics. He was employed as a teacher in Koya in 1997 and currently lives in Koya.[1]