Career
Naziha Salim was born into a family of Iraqi artists living in Turkey. In the 1940s, she graduated from the Baghdad Fine Arts Institution and continued her education in Paris. In the 1960s Salim returned to the Fine Arts Institute as a teacher and remained at the school until her retirement in the 1980s.
Naziha Salim suffered a stroke in 2003, which left her paralyzed.
She lived for another five years, dying in Baghdad at the age of 81. President Jalal Talabani called her death a "big loss to Iraqi art and culture".