Emily Daoud Abi Rached was born in the small village of Kaukaba,[4] and raised in al-Kfeir (at the western foot of Mount Hermon in southern Lebanon) on 6 July 1931 to Loutfa, née Abou Nasr and her husband Daoud Abi Rached. The eldest of six children, she grew up working in the village fields with her parents; an experience that would have later echoes in her writings. She watched the village emptying and family members emigrating in search for greener pastures especially that the village offered feeble educational and professional prospects.[2]