Zara Mel Bini was born on an unspecified date to a prostitute by the name of Melaza Bini, the ninth child of sixteen. Her father was a customer, a politician unaware of having fathered a child. Zara Mel was found to have a natural bent towards mechanics and petty theft, and she taught herself the basics of engineering from purloined books. At the age of (approximately) eight she disguised herself as a boy, a ruse she would not drop for quite some time.