He completed primary and secondary education in Kirkuk, later entering the Faculty of Science at the University of Baghdad in 1978.
After secondary school, Salihi began participating in pro-Turkmen political activities, resulting in his arrest by the Ba'athist government in 1979.
His older brother was executed by the government and his family was expelled to the southern parts of Iraq.
After the fall of Saddam in 2003, he became the representative of the Iraqi Turkmen Front in his native Musalla.
[7] In 2014, Salihi was elected as chairman of the Iraqi Parliamentary Human Rights Committee.