Jaafar Mustafa Maarouf, known as (Sheikh Jaafar of the Red Jamana), was born in 1957 in the village of Sarkan in the Srochak area, affiliated with the Barzinja sub-district of Sulaymaniyah Governorate. In 1970, he joined the ranks of the Kurdistan Students Union. In 1992, he was the mayor of Penjwen, in 1996 he was appointed as the mayor of the Martyr Halabja, and from 2003-2005 he served as the mayor of Akre city. He was a member of the second term (2005-2009) of the Kurdistan Parliament. Due to the services and struggle he provided to the Kurd and Kurdistan, by President Masoud Barzani he was awarded the Barzani the Immortal Medal.

Jaafar Mustafa Maarouf, known as (Sheikh Jaafar of the Red Jamana), was born in 1957 in the village of Sarkan in the Srochak area, affiliated with the Barzinja sub-district of Sulaymaniyah Governorate. He completed his high school education in the city of Sulaymaniyah. In 1970, he joined the ranks of the Kurdistan Students Union. In 1973, he began his party work. In 1974, at the resumption of the war between Aylul Revolution and the Ba'ath regime, he became a Peshmerga. After the collapse of the Aylul Revolution in 1975, he returned to his studies in the city of Sulaymaniyah, and after completing his studies in 1980, he was displaced with his family and household to Eastern Kurdistan.

In 1980, he joined the ranks of the Peshmerga of the Gulan Revolution in the Chwarta district committee affiliated with Branch Four, and in the same year, he received the rank of Commander in the Peshmerga forces. In 1984, he received the rank of administrator of the Chwarta district committee within the borders of Branch Four. In 1985, he became an administrator of the Sulaymaniyah district committee. On August 28, 1986, in the village of Khnera in Erbil Governorate, he was a delegate to the joint congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Students and Youth Union. At the end of 1988, he became an administrator of the Halabja district, and in the same year, he became the deputy responsible for the same district committee. 

In 1991, as the deputy of the Sorani-Sharazur front Kurdistan Democratic Party he was appointed. Before the uprising of the people of Kurdistan against the Ba'ath regime, he delivered the letter of President Masoud Barzani to the personalities, tribal leaders, and advisors of the area so that they would participate in the uprising and not stand against the masses of Kurdistan. In the same year, he became the responsible for the Khanaqin-Kalar front and the liberation of the city of Kalar in the Garmian area. After finishing this task and before the exodus of the people of Kurdistan to the borders, he was transferred to the Chwarta district committee and was the responsible for the Azmar-Qaiwan front. In 1991, after the Kurdistan uprising, he returned to Kurdistan. In 1992, he became an administrator of Branch Four of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Sulaymaniyah. After the election of the first Kurdistan Parliament and the formation of the Kurdistan Regional Government in the second half of 1992, and in December of the same year, he assumed the position of mayor of Penjwen district. In 1996, he assumed the position of mayor of the Halabja district.

From 2003 to 2005, he was the mayor of Akre district. In 2005, in the second term of the Kurdistan Parliament, he became a member of the Kurdistan Parliament representing the people of the Martyr Halabja and on the list of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. In 2003, during the process of the liberation of Iraq, he was a member of the Akre front. From 2007-2009, he received a degree in political science from Saint Clements University. For 11 years and three months (2011-2023), he was the responsible for the Khanaqin Branch of the Kurdistan Democratic Party He was a member of the Tenth (1989), Eleventh (1993), Twelfth (1999), and Thirteenth (2010) Congresses. He was the licensee of Sirwan Magazine, a member of the Kurdistan Parliamentarians Union, and participated in the trial of the criminal Ali Hassan al-Majid (Chemical Ali) in Baghdad.

In 2014-2016, he participated in the Khanaqin-Jalawla front in the war against ISIS as the responsible for the Fifteenth Khanaqin Branch of the Party. In 2022, in the city of Duhok, he participated in the Fourteenth Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party In 2023, he became a member of the High Council of Strugglers of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Jaafar Mustafa, in his life as a Peshmerga, was wounded three times in the years and battles: in 1983 in Chinara of Sharbazher, in 1987 in Chinara of Bask and Qaradagh, and in 1991 at the headquarters of the Chwarta district committee. His brothers Bahjat and Aram and his father were martyred on that same path. 

 On December 16, 2010, at the Thirteenth Congress of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, due to the services he had provided to the Kurd and Kurdistan, by President Masoud Barzani he was awarded the Barzani the Immortal Medal.

Among his works:

A Selection of My Memoirs

Sources: 

1- Archive of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Encyclopedia Board. 

2- Interview with Jaafar Sheikh Mustafa on September 14, 2025.