Rubaiyat Hossain is an interdisciplinary researcher. She has completed her B. A. in Women Studies from Smith College, USA, M. A. in South Asian Studies fromUniversity of Pennsylvania, USA. Her primary fields of interest are Sufism, Bengali nationalism, formation of Bengali modernity and its correlation with female sexuality. Rubaiyat Hossain has worked for prominent women’s rights NGOs in Bangladesh such as Ain O Shalish Kendra and Naripokkho. Rubaiyat Hossain was the co-coordinator for the first international workshop on Sexuality and Rights organized by BRAC School of Public Health in 2007. She has worked as a part time lecturer in the department of Economics and Social Sciences at BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh since 2006.

Rubaiyat Hossain is one of Bangladesh’s handful of female filmmakers, known for her critically acclaimed debut feature film Meherjaan (2011) which faced political and cultural wrath in Bangladesh for its anti war narrative, and its critic of masculine nationalism from a feminine point of view. The film was stripped down from theaters across Bangladesh only one week after its release, and is still prohibited from being screened.

Rubaiyat Hossain has been interested in film as a young girl from watching the films of Satyajit Ray and Rittwik Ghatak. Later she pursued her interest seriously and completed a Diploma in Film Direction at New York Film Academy in 2002. Since then, she has made few short films that have screened at national and international film festivals. Rubaiyat Hossain intends to utilize the research skills she has acquired in the academia to continue making films about Bengali identity, culture, politics and history.

Currently she lives between Dhaka and New York making films and attending Tisch School of Arts at New York University in Cinema Studies.

Filmography

Under Construction 88 min, 2015, second feature film.

Meherjaan 119 min. 2011, 1st feature film. The film was screened in a number of International film festivals including Festival de Cine de Bogotá, Festival International de Films de Fribourg, Festival Cinematográfico Internacional del Uruguay, Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian & Arab Cinema, Kolkata Film Festival, and won a dozens of awards including the Orson Wells Award at Tiburon Film Festival, Best Critic Award at Jaipur International Film Festival, Best Film & Audience Award at Northampton Film Festival.

Rubaiyat has also directed, shot and edited few short films as below:
Priyo Ami (Dear Me) 8 min, 2005 Balikar Gollachut (Girls Out of Circle) 52 sec, 2005 Shimanto (The Frontier) 1 min 12 sec, 2005