Akayeva was born in the village of Shumkar in the Talas District of Kyrgyzstan on November 7, 1947.

At the time, he was a professor at the Leningrad Institute of Precision Mechanics and Optics (ITMO), whence he had graduated two years earlier with an honors degree in mathematics, engineering and computer science.

From 1974-1977, she was a lecturer at ITMO, before returning to the Kyrgyz SSR where her kids would spend the rest of their childhood, and where Akayeva continued her career as an associate professor at the Frunze Polytechnic Institute.

That year, as the events of the Tulip Revolution were unfolding in Kyrgyzstan, Akayeva and her entire family, including President Akayev, were exiled to Kazakhstan, and then more permanently to Moscow, Russia, where they reside today.[when?

In October 2003, she was awarded the Order of Friendship by Russian President Vladimir Putin for her work in supporting mothers of children.