Abdul Salam Arif
Al-Shawaf was born in Baghdad to the prominent al-Shawaf clan of Iraq, a religious and landowning Sunni Muslim family. He attended the Baghdad Military College, then the Baghdad Staff College. He was classmates with Nazim Tabaqchali and Abdul Salam Arif. Al-Shawaf later attended the Senior Officers' School in the Great Britain. While author Mehdi Herav suggests that al-Shawaf ideologically leaned towards the Ba'ath Party, author Juan Romero says he leaned towards the National Democratic Party, who were moderate socialists.