Mursal Nazary was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1990. In 1993 she and her family left Afghanistan for Russia as refugees due to the Civil War. After a year in Russia, she and her family left for Germany and remained as landed immigrants. In 1998, Mursal and her family immigrated to Toronto, Canada.

Mursal was encouraged to study art at an early age from her school-teachers and began painting under the guidance of Artist's Bita Amani and Stephen Yau in Canada. She attended OCAD (Ontario College of Art and Design) University in Toronto, in which she was given a scholarship to attend the Florence Program for her third year, and earned her BFA in 2012. She completed her MFA in Painting at Boston University in 2019. Her teachers Israel Hershberg, Susan Walp, and Josephine Halvorson have influenced her approach to her work and served as formative guides for her practice. 

Her work is based on the process of observation and explores relationships of light, space, perspective and affect of subjects, most often including objects and interiors, within the context of a personal encounter or meeting. Mursal has presented her work in countries including Belgium, France, Italy, Canada and the United States. She has taught for various organizations and continues teaching in the U.S. She lives and works in New Hampshire.