[1] Bhuiyan was born on 1 March 1944 in Dhaka in the then British India (now in Bangladesh).
[1][3] Bhuiyan was elected to parliament from a reserved seat as a Jatiya Party (Ershad) candidate in June 1996.
[4] She and her husband founded Bhuiyan Academy which provides distance learning for law courses from University of London.
Bhuiyan served as the minister of social welfare and women's affairs in the first Hasina cabinet.
[1] In 1999, Bhuiyan filed a landmark environment case titled Rabia Bhuiyan, MP v Ministry of LGRD which acknowledged that the government has a responsibility to ensure access to safe drinking water.