She was born into a distinguished Iraqi family which included Mahmud Shevket Pasha, Prime Minister of the Ottoman Empire.

He married Suad Abbas, became an Iraqi diplomat and was appointed ambassador to Iran in 1947 and then to India from 1949 to 1958, where Nuha al-Radi grew up.

[1] After the Iraqi Revolution broke out in 1958 and the monarchy was overthrown, Nuha al-Radi became a ceramist, having joined the Byam Shaw School of Art in London and later worked with Chelsea Pottery.

[4] She and her family believed that the leukemia may have been caused by the depleted uranium allies had fired at the tanks during the Gulf war.

[7] She has been praised for offering a uniquely female perspective on the male-centred business of war, occupation and economic sanctions in both her writing and her artwork.