Asma Kombargi was born in Beirut and educated in American schools. Kombargi and her family fled the Lebanese civil war for the Netherlands in 1978. They eventually moved to Houston where Kombargi finished her undergraduate work at the University of Houston. She continued her studies and earned a Ph.D. in international studies at the University of Houston. For her dissertation she researched Islamic fundamentalist groups in the leading four Arab countries. She has taught courses at the University of Houston in International Relations, European Politics, and Governments of the Middle East. She also taught a graduate course in International Relations at the University of St. Thomas. Kombargi speaks several languages and has traveled frequently to Europe and the Middle East. She is married and has five children.