Dr. Hejar Oncel earned a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Houston and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He is a co-founder and board member of the Kurdish American Foundation of Houston and was born and raised in Northern Kurdistan where he grew up in a politically active environment that gave him a first hand experience of the evolution of the Kurdish liberation movement.

We spoke about what it was like growing up in Rojava, the geopolitics of the area, war, libertarian socialism, anarchism, and more.