The life of Sharif Osman bin Hadi

Sharif Osman bin Hadi became known across Bangladesh during the uprising of July 2024. He was then a Dhaka University graduate in his early thirties. [1] It was through his part in the protests of that year that he first came to wider notice. [2]

He was born in Nalchity, in the southern district of Jhalokathi, the youngest of six children of a madrasa teacher. [3, 4] He was educated in the madrasa system and read political science at the University of Dhaka. [5, 2] He later worked as a teacher and a university lecturer, [2, 4] and in 2024 a book of his poems was published under a pen name. [6]

This chapter follows those years: the household he grew up in, his schooling, the university, his teaching and his writing, up to the point in 2024 at which his public life began. What he did in public life after that is told in Political Journey; the whole of his life, in brief, in the biography overview.

Hadi was born on 30 June 1993 [4] in Nalchity Upazila, in Jhalokathi District in the south of Bangladesh. [3, 4] bdnews24.com describes Nalchity as his ancestral home. [2]

Reference compilations record that he was born Osman Goni. [3] He became known as Sharif Osman bin Hadi, a name also reported as Sharif Osman Hadi and Osman Hadi. [3]

His father, Maulana Abdul Hadi, taught at a madrasa and served as a local imam. [3] Hadi was the youngest of six children. [3, 4]

Accounts of his early years describe a devout household in which religious learning and education were central. [3, 5] One compilation describes the family as a modest Muslim household. [4]

Faith remained part of how he spoke in public. His statements in later years drew on religious language, invoking God in his own words. [7] Those statements, and the ideas they carried, are set out in Speeches & Ideas; this chapter records only where that language began: in a religious household and a religious education.

Hadi was educated in the madrasa system. At Jhalakati N. S. Kamil Madrasa he passed the Alim, the higher-secondary examination of the madrasa system. [5, 4]

From the madrasa he went on to the University of Dhaka. [2] The step took him from a religious education in the south of the country to the study of political science in the capital.

In the 2010–11 academic session Hadi joined the Department of Political Science at the University of Dhaka. [2] He went on to complete a master’s degree in the subject. [4]

Campus life

One reference profile records that he took part in campus politics and in debates during his time at the university. [4] The sources held do not say which debating societies or campus groups he belonged to, or what part he played in them.

According to bdnews24.com, his madrasa background, his language and his dress led many to assume that he belonged to Islami Chhatra Shibir, a student organisation. His colleagues told the outlet that before the July uprising he had not been involved with any political party. [2]

Hadi worked as a teacher. [2, 4] At one stage, bdnews24.com reports, he taught at Saifur’s, a coaching centre for English. [2]

He became a lecturer at the University of Scholars, a private university in Dhaka. [3, 2] According to Inqilab Moncho activists quoted by bdnews24.com, it was the post he held most recently. [2]

Hadi also wrote. His colleagues told bdnews24.com that before the uprising he was active in the cultural sphere and had written several books. [2]

In February 2024 a collection of poems, Lavay Lalshak Puber Akash, was published at the Amar Ekushey Book Fair in Dhaka under the name Simanto Sharif. [6] Reference listings identify Simanto Sharif as a pen name of Hadi’s. [3, 4, 8]

Introducing the book, its author said the poems dealt mainly with the oppression of the East by the West, the loss of human freedom, and the want, hunger, poverty and revolt of everyday life, and also with love, with family and with care for the oppressed. (Summarised in English by Justice for Hadi from the Bangla report.) [6]

This page does not characterise Hadi’s personality or way of life. The descriptions below were given by political figures in public after his death. They are recorded as their words, not as this project’s assessment.