The situation before the Congress was held:
On July 17, 1994, the Kurdistan Students Union obtained an official license from the Ministry of Interior in the Kurdistan Regional Government. According to the recommendations of the 8th Congress, the Ninth Congress of the Kurdistan Students Union was supposed to be held in 1995, but three years had passed since that date.
There were several reasons for the delay of the Congress, the most important of which was the involvement of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in a series of civil wars with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in May 1994. As a result, most of the Kurdistan Students Union headquarters were looted and its members faced arrest and intimidation.
Despite the unequal situation imposed, between the years (1993–1998), the Executive Committee of the Kurdistan Students Union held nine expanded meetings to organize its ranks and manage student affairs. In the last meeting, which was the ninth meeting of the Executive Committee on April 17, 1998, it was decided to hold the Ninth Congress of the Kurdistan Students Union. The Preparatory Committee for the Congress was formed, and by May 20, 1998, elections were held to select the Congress Delegates in all branches of the Union.
Congress Management:After all the preparations made by the Preparatory Committee, the Ninth Congress of the Kurdistan Students Union was held on Wednesday, July 27, 1998, with the attendance of 260 delegates under the slogan (Knowledge, Freedom, Qualification), in the presence of President Masoud Barzani, in the Culture Hall in the city of Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region.
On Wednesday, July 29, 1998, the Congress Delegates voted for the members of the new Executive Committee. For the first time in the history of the Kurdistan Students Union and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, a women's quota was introduced for their appointment to the Executive Committee, where four of them benefited from the women's quota.
The Executive Committee was elected at the Congress as follows:
1- Issa Ahmed Agha
2- Ali Awni Nimat
3- Shaban Shaban Ahmed
4- Shakir Abu Bakr Aziz
5- Awaz Abdulwahid Khadr
6- Ghalib Hussein Osman
7- Ahmed Mohammed Omar
8- Ali Tatar Tawfiq
9- Musa Ahmed Agha
10- Hazar Kako Ahmed
11- Hankaw Abdullah Khan
12- Shamiran Ali Mohammed
13- Zubair Abdullah Hussein
14- Fakhir Hussein Sadiq
15- Mohammed Shukri Mohammed Saeed
16- Karwan Jalal Ali
17- Salam Hussein Mohammed
18- Samira Nadir Qadir
19- Bayan Osman Hassan
Alternate members:
1- Nazim Rashid Ismail
2- Sirwan Osman Hassan
3- Muslih Hassan Miran
4- Murad Khoshwi Hussein
5- Shilan Jaafar Ali, known as Shilan Sheikh Jaafar.
On August 12, 1998, the Executive Committee elected in its first meeting Ali Awni as Secretary and the members of the Secretariat Office as follows:
1- Shakir Abu Bakr Aziz
2- Hankaw Abdullah
3- Shaban Shaban
4- Awaz Abdulwahid
5- Karwan Jalal Ali
6- Issa Ahmed Agha
During this period, the Kurdistan Students Union had eight branches: Salahaddin University, Raparin, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok-Nineveh (Duhok University branch was established in July 1998), Soran, and Akre.
Sources and footnotes:1- Sasan Awni, Kurdistan Students Union: Aspects of Struggle and History, (Erbil - Ministry of Education Press - 1998), p. 214.
2- Irfan Aziz Aziz, Congresses and Conferences of the Kurdistan Students Union, First Edition, (Erbil - Rojhalat Press - 2012), p. 128.
3- Sasan Awni, previous source, pp. 190-270.
4- Irfan Aziz, previous source, p. 129.
5- With the presence of President Barzani, our union held its Ninth Congress, Khabat al-Talaba newspaper, organ of the Kurdistan Students Union, No. 31, Third Cycle, Erbil, September 20, 1998, p. 1.
6- Conclusion of the Ninth Congress of the Kurdistan Students Union by electing a new leadership, Khabat newspaper, mouthpiece of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Unified, No. 885, Friday, July 31, 1998, p. 1.
7- Election of the members of the new body of the Executive Committee of the Kurdistan Students Union, Khabat newspaper, mouthpiece of the Kurdistan Democratic Party - Unified, No. 886, Friday, August 7, 1998, p. 3, In a democratic atmosphere, the new body of the Executive Committee of our union was elected, Khabat al-Talaba newspaper, organ of the Kurdistan Students Union, No. 31, Third Cycle, Erbil, September 20, 1998, p. 4.
8- Karwan Kadani, previous source, p. 25.
9- Irfan Aziz, previous source, pp. 137-145.