Shahnaz Rahman completed her Bachelor's, Master's, and Ph.D. degrees from Aligarh Muslim University. Her primary focus is on fiction, with particular attention to text-centered analysis, a theme clearly reflected in her research work and Ph.D. thesis titled "Aazaadi ke baad Urdu afsano ki tanqeed ka tajziyaati aur Tanqeedi Mutaala." She has continued to write extensively on this topic, as evidenced by her books: Urdu Fiction: Tafheem, Taabeer aur Tanqeed (2017), Urdu Fiction: Matn, Ma‘ni aur Mauqaf (2023), Mu‘asir Urdu Novel: Tafheem aur Tajziya (2024) Maharashtra mein Urdu Novel (2025).

Shahnaz Rahman began writing short stories in 2011. She has been awarded the Zakir Ali Khan Award from Aligarh Muslim University and the Shamim Nakhat Urdu Fiction Award in Lucknow, which was presented by the Honorable Governor Ram Naik and renowned writer Shamsur Rahman Farooqi. Her first collection of short stories, Nairang-e-Junoon, was published in 2017, for which she was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar in 2018. Her stories have also been broadcast on All India Radio, and she has received awards from both the Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy and the Bihar Urdu Academy.