Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Ayten graduated from Faculty of Commerce in 1999. She studied Film Criticism at the Cinema Writers and Critics Association in 2001 and studied Cinema independently at the Art Lab of the American University in Cairo (AUC). Ayten started her directing career with documentary films and short films. In 2009, she directed the short fiction Spring 89 that won many awards and was selected at prestigious festivals including the Short Film Corner of the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Ayten co-directed the documentary film Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad and the Politician (2011) that was selected at many festivals including the Venice Film Festival and Toronto Film Festival. For her feature debut VILLA 69 (2013), she won the Cairo Film Connection prize for Best Project in December 2010.