Born in 1972 and grew up in Baghdad, Iraq. He studied at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and graduated in 1994. Later he decided to escape Saddam‘s regime. He embarked on an adventurous odyssey with his childhood friend Ali
Al-Fatlawi which eventually led him to Switzerland through many detours.
He studied at the F+F School of Art and Design in Zürich, Switzerland, and graduated in 2002. Wathiq won the Performance Art Award Switzerland in 2011 followed by the prestigious Swiss Art Award in 2012.