Zeinab Elobeid Yousif

Yousif was born in Khartoum on 13 June 1952. She was the oldest daughter of Elobeid Yousif Ahmed Shidwan,^[1] a well-known and respected businessman and Asma Elobeid Ahmed Shidwan. Both her parents came from religious backgrounds.^{[citation needed]}

Yousif grew up in the village of Oum Dawwaban (Arabic: أم ضوّاً بان) known for its religious school for boys where people from across Sudan and sub-Saharan Africa send their children to learn classical Arabic and study the Quran.

During her youth in the 1960s, Sudanese culture was considered patriarchal and hostile towards women wanting to study and work in technical fields such as engineering. Yousif graduated from highschool thanks to her father's encouragement. Yousif studied electronic engineering at Khartoum Polytechnic, now the University of Science and Technology, from 1970 to 1973.^{[citation needed]}

She first worked as an aircraft engineer in the radio workshop in maintenance and repair for Sudan Airways. From 1983 to 1986, she studied Avionics and Aerospace Engineering at Brunel Technical College in Bristol, UK, where she received her license from the Civil Aviation Authority. In the 1990s, she earned a Master of Science degree in Advanced Manufacturing Systems from Kingston University, London.^[2]