Naziha Salim was born in Turkey in 1927 to a family of artists. He studied art at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad and the cole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
April 23 marks a significance for Salim's career as a date as her work featured in the United Arab Emirates-based Barjeel Art Foundation's collection of works of women artists on this day.
She wrote a book called Iraq: Contemporary Art, which is an important source of information about the early development of Iraq's modern art movement and her artwork is on display at the Sharjah Art Museum and the Iraqi Archive of Modern Art (MAIA).