Dagher (Almaza Dagher) was born in Tannourine, Lebanon on March 6, 1908. She moved to Cairo with her sister Mary, and niece Mary Queeny in 1919 after the French occupation of Syria and Lebanon. She stayed with Asaad Dagher, her cousin, who was a writer and journalist at the famous Al-Ahram newspaper. She got the Egyptian nationality in 1933.