Al-Wazir was born in Sana’a and grew up in the US and Egypt. Her father is Zaid Ali Alwazir, a Yemeni scholar, who produced a large number of publications on political Islam, including the controversial book Al-Fardia, or "Autocracy": a research on authoritarianism in Islamic history.[2] She received her Master in International Relations from American University, in Washington, D.C. Her dissertation focused on women in prison in Yemen, between honor and crime.[3]