He is the recipient of the 2005 Ramon Magsaysay Award in the journalism, literature and creative communication arts category.

[2] For his secondary education, he attended Nawabpur Government High School and then Dhaka College.

For his higher education, he attended the University of Dhaka and earned his master's degree in statistics in 1967.

For five years during the 1970s, he also published the Bangladesh edition of the journal World Marxist Review.

After Saber Hossain Chowdhury joined the cabinet of the Awami League government, Rahman felt pressured to shape the newspaper's stance in accordance with the ruling party and this led to his resignation.