The teenager excelled in her debut outing for Bahrain, coming second in the 3000 metres steeplechase to Moroccan Olympian Salima El Ouali Alami at the 2013 Arab Athletics Championships. Her time of 9:52.47 minutes was a Bahraini national record for the event. She improved upon her own mark that July at the 2013 Asian Athletics Championships, where she seized the lead from the start and never relinquished her position. She defeated pre-race favourite and Asian Games champion Sudha Singh by more than fifteen seconds and her time of 9:40.84 minutes was a new championship record. This time ranked her as the top Asia steeplechase runner that year.