In 1938, at the age of four years old, Al-Qatami joined kindergarten. She continued her primary education in Iraq, after her family left Kuwait. In 1952 she travelled to England to study at a French convent school, where she learnt French and English. After two years she moved to an English school to study for O-Levels and A-Levels, at the suggestion of her father who believed an English education would be more useful to her when she returned to Kuwait. She studied English and French at the University of Edinburgh. Whilst there, she was Vice President of the Student's Union. As a result she was the first woman from Kuwait to attend university overseas.
