Her older brother sewed for the Ottoman Army, and Skenderova learned the Turkish language at a young age and taught herself to write.

Skenderova, by permission of the Ottoman authorities, was allowed to open the first school for girls in Sarajevo in 1858.

While she was enjoying some entertainment in Ilidža, a horse-drawn carriage ploughed into the crowd and Skenderova was severely wounded.

Skenderova was featured in the multi-media ŽeneBiH project, devised by activists and scholars in Bosnia to highlight the achievements of women in the country's culture and history.

She is also one of the principal subjects of the essay collection No Man's Lands: eight extraordinary women in Balkan history, by the British-Kosovan writers Elizabeth Gowing and Robert Wilton.