Sarah Idan was born and raised in Baghdad. When Sarah was 13, she taught herself English by listening to Western music. After the Second Iraq War, she temporarily moved with her family to neighboring Syria fleeing the civil war but eventually returned to Iraq a few years later. In 2017, Sarah was crowned Miss Universe Iraq and selected to compete in the Miss Universe pageant.

She was the first Iraqi woman to participate in more than 45 years. In June 2018,  Idan visited Israel where she gave her first speech about peace and co-existence. Today she is the founding CEO of Humanity Forward, an NGO that focuses on building bridges between Jews and Muslims.