Fatimah el-Sharif was born in Italian Cyrenaica in 1911 as the fifth daughter of Ahmed Sharif as-Senussi, the former chief (3rd) of the Senussi order of Sufism.

Her mother Khadija, Ahmed Sharif's second wife, was a daughter of general Ahmad al-Rifi (d. on 3 September 1911 in Kufra), distinguished elder statesman of the brotherhood and the last surviving personal companion of the Grand Senussi.

In 1954, her nephew assassinated Idris' advisor Ibrahim al-Shelhi because of a rumour that Shelhi had convinced the King to divorce Fatima in favour of a marriage with his own daughter.

[5] In 1954, queen Fatimah was interviewed in her small private palace in Benghazi by the journalist Nel Slis, who described her as an elegant and imposing woman dressed in the fashion of Christian Dior, and who spoke to her with her lady-in-waiting Selma Dajani as interpreter, since she could only understand a little English.

On 13 September she wrote to their lifetime friend Eric Armar Vully de Candole, CBE, who held the post of British Resident, Cyrenaica: "We could not answer your cables and letters as I was alone with my husband when the coup took place without any money at all until the Turkish Government came to our help, paid our hotel and arranged our journey to Greece."

[citation needed] Fatimah was later tried in absentia by the Libyan People's Court and sentenced in November 1971 to five years in prison and seizure of her assets.

Her body was finally laid to rest in the Hamza Cemetery near Mount Uhud in Medina on 7 October 2009 after salat al-Janazah in al-Masjid an-Nabawi.