Bahia is an associate professor at The American University in Cairo. She has developed and launched the Graphic Design program for the Department of the Arts at AUC. She is also a PhD candidate at Leiden University in Holland. Her research is focused on Fatimid Kufic inscriptions on portable items in the Mediterranean basin and beyond. It is concerned with form versus content and the extent to which the medium dictated the message.

Her MA thesis entitled "Floriated Kufic on the Monuments of Fatimid Cairo" received the Nadia Niazi Thesis Award at AUC in 2009.

Bahia is Creative Director with MI7-Cairo working on projects relevant to cultural heritage. Her work has been on display in Dubai-UAE, Beijing-China, Munich-Germany, and Trevi-Italy. She is a 2012 TEDGlobal Fellow. Her book "A Thousand Times NO: The Visual History of Lam-Alif" was published in 2010 by Khatt Books in Amsterdam.