Abid was born into an influential Damascene family. Her father, Mustafa al-Abid, was an aristocrat charged with administrative affairs in Kirk and later as an envoy to Mosul under Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II; she was the niece of Ahmad Izza al-Abid, a judge and advisor to the sultan. While living in Turkey, she was educated in several languages in Turkish, American and French schools. She graduated with a BA in agriculture from the Women's College in Istanbul. Her family was exiled to Egypt for ten years after the CUP 1908 revolution.