imi rashid was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh and has been a Chicago resident for over seventeen years. she graduated from the Illinois Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and immediately jumped into the corporate world where she continued to work as an accountant for twelve years.

as she spent more and more time working for large corporations, imi realized that despite the glamour of a corporate job along with its many benefits, there was something very crucial that was missing in her day to day work; the basic mental satisfaction of knowing that her hard work was serving a greater social cause. after years of working through the corporate america experience, imi decided it was time to leave in august, 2007. she resigned from her job with peoples energy corporation and took a sabbatical before launching her own accounting business in january, 2008.

in her spare time, imi is a writer, swimmer and billiards enthusiast. she is published in Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith and Sexuality (Seal Press, 2006) and two of her recent pieces have been accepted for publication in an anthology in progress tentatively titled Brown Souls. her newest venture, a collaborative piece entitled moshari: snapshots from home, has been staged at various performance venues in Chicago.

imi is also the co-founder of akabaka productions with sarwat rumi, which curates a series of queer muslim and queer women and genderqueer people of color programming in partnership with insight arts.

in september, 2008, imi was honored as a "champion for change" by women employed during their 35th anniversary celebration.