She is the daughter of Lakhdar Brahimi, former Algerian Minister for Foreign Affairs and senior UN official,[4] and Mila Bacic, who is of half-Croatian and half-Armenian descent.

As Rym Brahimi, the Princess received a BA in geography and an MA in English literature at the Sorbonne University in Paris, graduating with honors in 1990; [citation needed] a MPhil in political science at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris in Paris in 1991;[5] and a Master's degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, concentrating on international reporting, in 1994.

[6] Prior to marrying Prince Ali, Princess Rym worked extensively for international broadcasters including CNN, where she began as a producer in 1998 and later worked as a Baghdad correspondent from 2001 until 2004.

She has been the Executive Commissioner of the Royal Film Commission – Jordan since July 2005.

[7] She is the founder of the Jordan Media Institute (JMI), a non-profit institution whose aim is to establish an Arab center of excellence for journalism education with a Master's program at its core and training-modules in parallel.