Born in Cairo, Huda Lutfi studied at the American University of Cairo before completing a Doctorate of Philosophy in Islamic Culture and History at McGill University, Montreal, in 1983. She began to paint in 1992 after a year as a visiting scholar at Harvard University, combining historical texts with magical and spiritual iconography drawn from Pharaonic, Coptic, Arab, Mediterranean, Indian and African cultures.

She has had nine solo and twelve group exhibitions in Egypt and throughout Europe, while continuing to teach history and cultural studies at the American University in Cairo. Lutfi also published a book on Mamluk Jerusalem and several articles on gender, sexuality, and culture during the Mamluk period.