Mohammad Tofiq Rahim

Mohammad Tofiq Rahim
Hama Tofiq Rahim
Official Spokesman of the Rewtî Gorran Party
Personal details
Born	1 July 1953 (1953-07-01) (age 58) Silemani, Kurdistan, Iraq
Political party	Movement for Change
Residence	Silemani, Kurdistan, Iraq
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Engineer
Website	http://www.gorran.org

Mohammad Tofiq Rahim (Kurdish: محه‌مه‌د تۆفیق ره‌حیم) (born 1953) Is an Iraqi Kurdish politician. Born in Sulaimaniyah city in 1953, Rahim is currently the official spokesman for the Kurdistan region's largest opposition group.

Early Life

Rahim, popularly known as Hama Tofiq was born in the city of Sulaimaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan in 1953. After initial education in Sulaimaniyah, Rahim attended Mustansariyah University in Baghdad. He subsequently travelled to France and the United Kingdom where he completed his graduate studies at the Sorbonne and the University of Bath. He was active in Kurdish student politics from an early age and joined the Peshmerga forces immediately upon his return to Kurdistan.

Career at the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan

Mohammad Tofiq Rahim returned to Kurdistan in 1979, he had been active in Kurdish politics as a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and quickly rose to high leadership as Political beaureu member with responsibility for external relations, in part due to his command of several european languages. After the 1991 uprising in which the Kurd's overthrew Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime, Rahim was elected as the region's first deputy speaker of parliament. He subsequently held several Kurdistan Regional Government posts including minister of humanitarian resources (the nascent government's foreign office), Minister of Justice, Minister of Transportation and Minister of Planning.

In september 2003, after the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime Rahim was appointed Minister of Industry and Mines in the cabinet appointed by the Interim Iraq Governing Council.

In 2006 Rahim resigned from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan citing endemic corruption and nepotism.

Leadership - Movement for Change

After his resignation from the PUK, Rahim was a founding member of the Movement for Change under the leadership of Nawshirwan Mistefa. He is the movements official spokesman and responsible for the external relations of the organisation. He was a key campaigner in the Change lists 2009 election campaign in Sulaimaniyah in which Change took a quarter of the regions parliamentary seats.

References

• BBC News (2003-09-01). "Iraq's post-war cabinet". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3199561.stm. Retrieved 2006-02-24. 
• LA Times: Kurdish opposition makes strong showing in Iraq regional elections
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/25/MNFM18V5US.DTL

Persondata
Name	Rahim, Mohammad
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1 July 1953
Place of birth	Silemani, Kurdistan, Iraq
Date of death
Place of death