Her high social status allowed her to inconspicuously shelter and equip local Partisans for several months, but she was eventually discovered by the authorities and sent to prison.

Vahida Maglajlić was born on 17 April 1907 in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then a condominium occupied by Austria-Hungary and later part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

[1][2] She came from a prominent Muslim Bosniak family, the oldest of ten children of qadi Muhamed Maglajlić, president of Banja Luka's Sharia court, and his wife Ćamila.

The household numbered seven women and fifteen men, with Maglajlić's paternal grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins sharing the family home.

[2] Maglajlić had shown interest in handwork since early childhood, and so her parents decided to enroll her into women's vocational school in her hometown following maktab.

[2] World War II erupted in September 1939; Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers a year-and-a-half later, and the Independent State of Croatia (Serbo-Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska; NDH) was established on 10 April 1941.

[2] Maglajlić was able to take advantage of her father's high reputation as a qadi to shelter communists in their house, organize their transfer to liberated areas and gather medical supplies, clothes, weaponry and ammunition.

[4] She had her mother prepare food supplies for the Partisans and provided them with equipment such as radio transmitters by convincing Banja Luka's Serb, Muslim and Jewish families to donate their property to the resistance movement rather than see it confiscated by the Ustaše.

[2] The social status she enjoyed as a member of one of the city's most respectable families greatly encouraged other Muslims of Banja Luka to join the Partisans.

[5] The Ustaše eventually found out about Maglajlić's activities, but to arrest her in public meant risking a significant revolt among the Muslim population.

[2][4] She represented the communists in Sanski Most and Bosanski Novi until January 1943, when the Fourth Enemy Offensive forced her to retreat over Mount Šator into Glamoč and Livno.

[2] Maglajlić's image has been used on the covers of leaflets distributed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, which has promoted her as a role model for Palestinian women.