Salima Alipova was born in 1931 in a Kazakh family in Guryev (today, Atyrau), Kazakhstan, on the Caspian Sea north shore, where she would spend her life. She had to start working after finishing six grades of school when her father died in the Second World War in 1942. In 1945, at the age of 14, she became a worker at the Kazakh branch of State Union Geophysical Trust of the Ministry of Oil Industry. Beginning in 1950 and for several decades, she worked as a mason at Construction Directory No. 3 of the trust Guryevneftkhimstroy (Guryev Oil and Chemical Construction). She contributed to the construction of numerous residential, public and industrial buildings in Guryev, including Guryev Chemical Plant, Guryev Pedagogical Institute, and others. In 1971, for overfullfilling production norms of the five-year-plan, she received several important awards: distinguished construction worker of Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, hero of socialsit labor, and the Order of Lenin.

Alipova joined the Communist Party in 1968, and was later a member of Guryev city council, a member of the Party committee of Guryevneftkhimstroy and a delegate to meetings of labor unions.

Alipova was married and had seven children.