Rahimah is currently the co-founder and director at Cerita Caravan (The Caravanserai Collective). As the former Executive Director of the Habibie Center – one of Indonesia’s leading think tanks focusing on democracy and human rights, Rahimah Abdulrahim advocates for peace policy and the strengthening of democracy in Indonesia. She works to enhance relations between Indonesia and other countries. She speaks regularly in Indonesia and internationally on affairs concerning Indonesia and ASEAN – in particular the role of civil society in democracy, global governance and democratization in the region. She was selected as a 2015 Yale World Fellow, joining a network of more than 250 Yale World Fellows from 84 countries. In 2001 she was awarded the APSA Congressional Fellowship from The Asia Foundation to work for one year in the U.S. Congress.

In 2010 she completed a fellowship with IDEAS Indonesia, an Executive Program through the Sloan School of Management at MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Rahimah earned her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Islamic Studies from the International Islamic University Malaysia. She also holds a master’s degree in International Studies and Diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

Her research as an AsiaGlobal Fellow looked at the progress of democracy in majority Muslim countries, focusing on the issue of democratic development in pluralistic societies, and in particular the role of social and digital media in cultivating Muslim democrats that embrace a spirit of inclusion, trust, tolerance, understanding and pluralism.