A living poet, a false death Media’s carelessness stuns Poet Dilara Hafiz

Dhaka was shaken by a bizarre episode of journalistic negligence when poet and educationist Professor Dilara Hafiz discovered her photograph splashed across the death reports of another academician with the same name. 

“The news of my death has spread all over the city… Friends and well-wishers are calling me, asking if the news is fake. I am alive, by the grace of Allah,” she wrote on Facebook, stunned by the error.

How the mistake spread

The confusion began when Bangla Vision reported the passing of Professor Dilara Hafiz, the wife of Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed. Instead of using the correct image, the channel broadcast a photograph of poet Dilara Hafiz, the wife of freedom fighter and renowned poet Rafiq Azad. 

The mistake quickly snowballed. Students, colleagues, and acquaintances shared condolence posts, believing their beloved teacher had died.

One student wrote: “Former Principal of Mirpur Bangla College, Professor Dr Dilara Hafiz, ma’am, is no longer with us!” Others posted tributes with her photograph in the principal’s chair. Hundreds mourned, unaware that the woman in the picture was still alive.

“How can the media sentence a living person to death?”

Shocked, Professor Hafiz asked: “What kind of media world is this? How can it be so irresponsible? Can any responsible news portal do such a thing?”

She reminded readers that two women share the name “Dilara Hafiz,” but with distinct lives and legacies:

Poet and educationist Dilara Hafiz, wife of Rafiq Azad, who taught at Eden Women’s College for 25 years and later served as principal of Bangla College and Titumir College.

Historian Professor Dilara Hafiz, who was also principal of several government colleges and Director General of the Dhaka education board, and the wife of Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, passed away in Singapore.

The failure to distinguish between them, she argued, was not just a mistake but a violation of basic journalistic responsibility.

Mourning while alive

For the poet, the incident was surreal. “It is good that I got a glimpse of the mourning after death while still alive. I was able to measure the taste of death to some extent,” she reflected. Yet she also worried about the emotional toll on her students, who were left grieving and anxious.

A larger problem of verification

This episode underscores a wider issue in Bangladeshi media: the lack of rigorous fact-checking and verification. In an era of instant news and viral posts, the consequences of such negligence are profound – causing grief, confusion, and reputational harm.

Poet Dilara Hafiz concluded her post with dignity, offering condolences to the family of the deceased namesake while urging the media to uphold its responsibility: “Let us not be a cause of sorrow in people’s minds. Let this be the great vow of life.”