Slemani, founded in 1784 by the Kurdish prince Ibrahim Pasha Baban, who named it after his father, Sleman Pasha, has always been the center of great historians, politicians, journalists, scholars, artists, singers, poets and writers such as Nali, Mahwi, Bekas and Piramerd. The city is the largest in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with a population of 2,486,486 citizens and a total territory of 21,071 km2. Alongside
arts and culture, its primary industries are agriculture, education, healthcare,
and tourism, with developing fields of manufacturing and renewable energy.
Kashkul, with Slemani Governor, its Directorate of Culture, and major literary stakeholders in the city applied to designate Slemani as UNESCO’s Creative City of Literature. On October 31, 2019, UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network welcomed Slemani into a global network of 246 cities. The network covers seven creative fields: Crafts and Folk Arts, Media Arts, Film, Design, Gastronomy, Literature and Music. The Creative Cities are working together towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.
Dr. Haval Abubaker, Governor of Slemani received the Kashkul Group from the American University of Iraq/Slemani at the Governorate’s Office. The group consisted of Dr.
the Namdar Qaradaghi Music Learning Center in Slemani held a melody composition and music distribution competition at the Art Building. The event featured exceptional performances
Participation of the Sulaymaniyah Literary Office in literary and cultural seminars and discussions within the various activities of the UNESCO Literary Conference in Ljubljana, the
From September 8th to 12th, 2025, the annual conference of the UNESCO Creative Cities of Literature Network will be held in Ljubljana, the capital of
A competition for musical composition, arrangement, and orchestra conducting by the students of the academy. Additionally, several original Kurdish songs will be performed by our
Kurdish painter Yasin Hassan has been awarded by NMM ART & Luiza Gallery in Spain.
