With her mother's encouragement, Kaabi-Linke began to draw. Later she studied painting at the Tunis Institute of Fine Arts,[2] graduated in 1999, and received her Ph.D. from the Sorbonne in 2008[1] in aesthetics and the philosophy of art. While in France, she met her German husband, Timo, who would later curate many of Kaabi-Linke's shows.[2]