Naghma was born as Shaperai (Pashto: ښاپېرۍ meaning Head Fairy) on 1 January 1964 in Afghanistan. The city of her birth cannot be verified. She was the eldest daughter in a family of five boys and three girls. Her father's name was Syed Suleiman Shah and her mother is Bibi Mashala. Her father died when Naghma was five years old. As a young girl, she developed an interest in music. At sixteen she moved to Kabul with her paternal uncle. She continued her secondary education at Rabia Balkhi Lece where she was performing in the girl's band as a vocalist. A year before finishing her high school she married Mangal, an already popular Pashto singer from Laghman Province, and consequently left school to advance her musical career. They were instant celebrities, recording hits that are famous to this day.