Şevkefza Kadın was born in Poti, Russian Empire (present-day Georgia). Her father was Mehmed Bey Zaurum and her mother was Cemile Hanım, an Ubykh.[3][6] She had an elder sister, Fatma Laleru Hanım.[3] Her family emigrated from the Caucasus to Istanbul, where she was delivered to the court of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II.