Nonoo was born in
Manama, to a family of
Jewish business entrepreneurs with origins in present-day
Iraq. Nonoo's grandfather Ibrahim left
Baghdad in 1888 and started a financial business in Bahrain. Nonoo lived for an extended period of time in the
United Kingdom, where she attended
Carmel College, a Jewish boarding school, and earned an
MBA. She also met and married Salman Idafar, a British Jew, with whom she had two sons;
Menasheh and Ezra. After her father died in a car accident, she returned to Bahrain to take over the Basma Company, a company offering different office services, from IT to janitoring, hence becoming a successful businesswoman after inheriting the family's business. Prior to her appointment to the
Majlis al-shura in 2005, she founded in 2004 and presided over the
Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society, a society for the advancement of women's rights as well as of foreign workers in Bahrain. For a total of three years served as a member of
parliament (40-member Shura Council), after being appointed by King
Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah. Her appointment made headlines because Houda is part of the
small Jewish community of
Bahrain. Bahrain's Jewish community reportedly consists of just 37 people, most of whom are the descendants of immigrants from
Iraq and
Iran. In 2000, a cousin,
Ebrahim Daoud Nonoo was appointed to
parliament. The Nonoo family is originally from
Iraq having moved to
Bahrain over a century ago.{{cite news ==Appointment as ambassador to the United States==