Born to a wealthy family in the village of
Sharabass, 95 miles from
Cairo, Badawi was educated at
al-Saidiya school in Cairo. He graduated with a first-class degree in philosophy from the
Egyptian University in 1938, and was supervised for his PhD thesis by
Alexandre Koyré. From 1950 to 1956 he taught at
Ain Shams University. As a member of a 1954 committee to draft a new
Egyptian constitution, he clashed with
Nasser, who dissolved the committee in 1956. From 1956 to 1958 he was a
cultural attache in Switzerland, regarding fellow diplomats there as "ignorant and hypocritical". Badawi described leaving Nasser's Egypt to teach in the
Sorbonne in 1967 as escaping "the big jail". However, a professorship in Libya from 1967 to 1973 ended when
Muammar Gaddafi visited the university and was embarrassed to be received by Badawi's students arguing for
freedom of expression. Gaddafi imprisoned Badawi, publicly burning his personal library. His release was secured after 17 days by
Anwar Sadat. Badawi taught at
Kuwait University from 1975 to 1982. He was a contributor to the existentialist magazine
Al Adab.{{cite journal|author=Yoav Di-Capua|title=Arab Existentialism: An Invisible Chapter in the Intellectual History of Decolonization ==References==