His work explores language and identity in the context of Cairo, and reflects connections with the Arab-Islamic canon and world literature.

At the age of 19 he left Egypt for the UK, where he obtained a first class honours BA in English and Philosophy from Hull University in 1998.

His 2006 photo travelogue Beirut Shi Mahal (Arabic: بيروت شي محل), later translated into Polish,[5] was nominated for the Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage.

[6] Rakha is also known as a photographer, a journalist, a creative writing coach, and the editor of a bilingual literature and photography site named after his first novel, The Sultan's Seal: Cairo's Coolest Cosmopolitan Hotel, which became an archive in 2023.

[11] His site has helped to introduce significant young writers in Arabic like the Libyan Ali Latife, the Algerian Salah Badis, the Palestinian Carol Sansour and the Egyptian Amgad Al Sabban; it has featured literary and photographic figures including Bezav Mahmod, Hilary Plum, Niall Griffiths and Pauls Toutonghi.