Menaf Othman (Abdelmonaf Othman) is a Syrian Kurdish writer and painter, born in 1965 in Hasake. He studied geology at Damascus University. Since childhood, he has been interested in literature and painting. In Syria, where the Kurdish language was banned, he was arrested and tortured for possessing a Kurdish poetry book that had been published in Lebanon.
In the early 1990s, he was forced to flee Syria and took refuge with his relatives in Turkey. However, being Kurdish was also a major problem in Turkey, and there he was again arrested on the eve of the Newroz Festival. Accused of spreading separatist propaganda, he was tried for ten years and eventually sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 2024, after about 31 years, he was finally released. He was deported to Malaysia and later came to Germany with a scholarship from German PEN.
So far, Osman has written many novels, short stories, poems, and plays. He has published a total of nine books — five novels, three short story collections, and one play. Among his works are also several translations into Kurdish, including The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exeupéry, and The Thousand and One Nights.