She studied music at the Tashkent Conservatory and published her first story at the age of 16 in Yunost.
In the mid-1980s, after stage and screen writing for several years, she moved to Moscow.
[4] Her major themes are Jewish and Israeli history, migration, nomadism, neo-indigeneity, messianism, metaphysics,[5] theatre, autobiography and the interplay between the Israeli and Russian Jewish cultures and languages.
[6] Dual Surname (Двойная фамилия) was adapted into a movie released in 2006 and aired on Russia's Channel One.
In 2007, Rubina won the Russian Big Book literary award.