Tawfiq was born in 1932 in Sulaymaniyah. He studied civil engineering at Baghdad University, but was expelled for political activities and subsequently continued studies in Britain.[2]
In 1956, Tawfiq helped found the Kurdish Students' Society in Europe (KSSE) in Wiesbaden.[3]
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Tawfiq worked in Budapest as a staff member at the secretariat of the World Federation of Democratic Youth.[2][4] At the 8th Congress of the KDP in 1970 he was elected to the party's central committee.[2]
In the early 1970s Tawfiq was the editor of the KDP's Arabic-language newspaper Al-Taakhi ("Brotherhood"), which earned praise as Iraq's only independent newspaper at that time.[5]
In February 1972, Tawfiq was selected to join a committee tasked with negotiations between the KDP and the Ba'ath Party on autonomy for the Kurds in Iraq following the peace agreement of 1970.[6] During the early to mid-1970s, Tawfiq was associated with the moderate faction of the KDP; those who accepted the autonomy law proposed by the Iraqi government and who sought Kurdish cultural and economic autonomy within the national framework of that time.[citation needed]
Following the defeat and exile of the KDP in the Second Iraqi–Kurdish War, Tawfiq surrendered to the authorities and was given a position within the Iraqi government,[7] becoming director-general of the State Enterprise for River Transport by 1978.[8]
Tawfiq was opposed to the Iran-Iraq war, which started in 1980.[1] He was arrested by Iraqi security forces in November 1981 and was never seen again; he is presumed to have been executed.[1][7][9]
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