[1] She was the daughter of Cafer Fahri Dikmen, originally from Batumi and Turkey's first microbiologist,[citation needed] and his wife Emine Halide Hanim.

[2][3] Like her sister, she attended English and French schools, graduating in 1940 at Işık High School, and she approached painting because her family frequented[clarification needed] artists such as Namık İsmail and Feyhaman Duran.

[4][5] Parallel to her studies, between 1943 and 1949, encouraged by her family, she attended the State Academy of Fine Arts as an external student,[clarification needed] following the courses of Léopold Lévy.

In this period she devoted herself to the study of the figure, carrying out internships at the Louvre Museum and the Museum of Popular Arts and Traditions and making several friends, including Max Ernst, Yves Bonnefoy, Man Ray, Jacques Herold.

[3] Later, Tiraje turned to the study of color and began to experiment with the surrealist style.