Ali Shariatmadari

Who is Ali Shariatmadari?

Ali Shariatmadari is an Iranian academic and educationist. He was President of the Iranian Academy of Sciences from 1990-1998. He is currently Professor of Education at the Teacher Training University in Tehran.

He graduated with a BA in Law from University of Tehran in 1951 and went on to complete his higher education in the United States, gaining an MA in Secondary School Education at the University of Michigan in 1957. His PhD, awarded in 1959 by the University of Tennessee, concerned philosophy of education and curriculum planning.

While an academic at Shiraz University, Shariatmadari spent four months in solitary confinement as a result of supporting a student demonstration against French actions in Algeria during a visit by the Shah to the city.

With the advent of the Islamic revolution in 1979, he was made Minister for Higher Education in Mehdi Bazargan's interim government. Subsequently, he was tasked, together with Mustafa Moin, Ahmad Ahmadi and Abdolkarim Soroush, with training and vetting professors, selecting students, and Islamizing universities and their curricula.

Shariatmadari's numerous publications include works on educational philosophy, education and training in an Islamic context and the role of creativity in learning. He is a member of Iran's High Council of the Cultural Revolution.