[5] She's considered an internationally significant figure in the field,[7] and has been referred to as Southeast Asia's premier female reciter of the Qur'an.
[8] Ulfah was born in Lamongan Regency, East Java, on December 21, 1955, to Haji Mudhoffar and Hajjah Ruminah.
In 1981, she married Mukhtar Ikhsan, a pulmonologist and respiratory physician and lecturer at the medical school of the University of Indonesia.
[5] Ulfah's recitation was featured on the companion CD to Approaching the Qur'an by Michael Sells,[3] and she has toured Malaysia, Egypt, Australia, the United States,[14] Canada, and several European countries.
[15] During her 1999 tour in the United States for which Ulfah was accompanied by Anne Rasmussen,[14] her trip was hosted by the Middle East Studies Association of North America.