Shahab Moradi (; ; born in Tehran), is an Iranian clergyman, preacher, and university lecturer. He has appeared in different programs on Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting as an expert since 2000.
Early life and education
Shahab Moradi studied at seminaries in Tehran and Qom.
He began his studies at the Ghaem Seminary in Chizar under Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Asghar Hashemi Olya. He also studied under the late Ayatollah Ahmad Mojtahedi Tehrani, Ayatollah Sayyid Ebrahim Khosrowshahi, and Grand Ayatollah Vahid Khorasani, whom he frequently cites as significant influences on his education, clerical ethics, and approach to religious scholarship. Additionally, he has stated that he attended the advanced jurisprudence (Kharij Fiqh) lectures of Ali Khamenei for several years.
Public Service and Government Roles
Ministry of Interior and Supreme Audit Court Moradi began serving as an adviser to the Minister of Interior and a member of the Research Council of the Iranian Ministry of Interior in 2005. By July 2006, he was also serving as head of the ministry's Group of Young Advisers. In June 2007, Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi appointed him as an adviser to the minister and head of the ministry's Political Training Center.
In 2008, during Pourmohammadi's tenure, Moradi proposed consolidating the ministry's dispersed educational and research bodies into a single institution, in accordance with the structural reforms required under Iran's Fourth Development Plan. He subsequently pursued the preparation of its organizational structure and the administrative approval process and became the founder and first president of the newly established Center for Studies, Research and Training of the Ministry of Interior.
The new center integrated the ministry's previously dispersed educational and research units, linking applied research and professional training with the administrative needs of the ministry, provincial administrations and county administrations. Concurrently, the Group of Young Advisers focused primarily on identifying and developing promising younger personnel already working within the ministry and its provincial and county administrations, rather than relying on factional or predominantly external recruitment. A smaller number of individuals were recruited from outside the ministry. Among them was Malek Rahmati, whom Moradi invited to begin his administrative career in his office after completing his studies. Rahmati later served as governor-general of East Azerbaijan province and was killed in the 2024 Varzaqan helicopter crash.
Across two periods of service, Moradi's work as an adviser to the Minister of Interior overlapped with the tenures of Mostafa Pourmohammadi, Seyyed Mehdi Hashemi as acting minister, Ali Kordan, Kamran Daneshjoo as acting minister, Sadegh Mahsouli, Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli and Ahmad Vahidi. He returned to the Ministry of Interior in 2017 and continued as an adviser during the tenures of Rahmani Fazli and Vahidi until September 2022. He was subsequently appointed as an adviser to the president of the Supreme Audit Court of Iran.
Tehran municipal administration From 2008 until his appointment as president of the organization in 2013, Moradi was a member of the Board of Directors of the Cultural and Art Organization of Tehran Municipality. During this period, he also advised Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on cultural and social matters.
On 26 November 2013, Moradi was appointed president of the Cultural and Art Organization of Tehran Municipality, succeeding Amir Khorakian. The formal handover ceremony was held on 1 December 2013.
Moradi held the presidency until April 2015, when Mahmoud Salahi succeeded him. Following the end of his presidency, Ghalibaf appointed him as an adviser to the Mayor of Tehran, a position he held until returning to the Ministry of Interior in 2017.
Cultural, Media, and Legal Roles Earlier in his career, Moradi spent approximately five years as a deputy at the Islamic Revolution Document Center and headed its publishing division. During his tenure, he initiated the systematic collection and publication of memoirs by veterans of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Ground Forces, contributing to the documentation of the army's role in the Iran–Iraq War.
On 1 October 2013, Ali Jannati, then Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, appointed Moradi as a member of the Film Screening Permit Council following a proposal from the head of the Cinema Organization of Iran. Moradi withdrew from the council before it formally began its work, explaining that membership required more available time than he could provide.
In October 2011, Moradi was selected as a member of the Tehran Province Press Court Jury under Article 36 of Iran's Press Law.
Family and Social Initiatives
Moradi is a co-founder and board member of the Family Consolidation Foundation (Bonyad-e Tahkim-e Khanevadeh), an organization focused on strengthening marital stability and reducing divorce rates. Alongside his pre-marital educational initiative, Kalas Mojaradha, he launched "Khanevadeh Nowpa" (Newborn Family), offering free communication and life skills workshops for newly married couples.
Moradi has advocated an experiential rather than prohibitive approach to young people's use of digital games. In a 2025 interview, he argued that parents and educators should understand and experience the media used by younger generations before judging it, stating that meaningful engagement with young people requires familiarity with their interests and circumstances. He described recreation as a legitimate human need and advised parents to allow children to play their preferred games within managed time limits while also participating alongside them.
Opposition to the promotion of polygamy
In a 2019 interview, Moradi argued that promoting polygamy was neither necessary nor a social priority and that activists working on family and marriage should instead focus on encouraging unmarried people to marry and form families. He also recounted a meeting of family activists with Ali Khamenei, saying that Khamenei had expressed reservations about polygamy and did not support recommending it. The interview subsequently received further coverage from the specialized Ijtihad Network, and Moradi's account was cited by Fars News Agency in later reporting on the controversy over Khamenei's position on promoting polygamy.
Philanthropy
In 2013, Moradi founded the Madar-e Mehraban Foundation (Charity No. 32689), establishing its legal NGO structure based on the name of Khadija bint Khuwaylid after inviting a board of founders to join the initiative. Dedicated to combating childhood hunger and malnutrition across Iran, the foundation focuses primarily on the direct provision of meals and nutritional support for impoverished children. Built on a strictly non-profit and genuinely non-governmental framework, it operates without reliance on state budgets or commercial activities. Demonstrating an institutional model of philanthropy that prioritizes organizational sustainability over personal branding, Moradi intentionally minimized his own prominence in public campaigns, structuring it as an autonomous, community-driven organization. The foundation operates under a strict policy of financial segregation: 100% of public donations are allocated directly to food provision, while administrative and operational expenses are funded separately through designated sponsors. Beyond immediate relief—such as distributing daily nutritional snacks in schools—the initiative emphasizes dignity-preserving aid delivery to protect the self-respect of the children, alongside active youth volunteer engagement.
Nazri Ducks
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Shahab Moradi launched the “Nazri Ducks” initiative to support low-income rural families. The name refers to the Iranian concept of nazri, a votive offering associated with a religious vow. In Iranian tradition, nazri food may be shared with both rich and poor, rather than being limited to recipients of charitable aid. Under the initiative, live ducks were provided to needy rural families, allowing them to use the eggs and breed and raise the ducks for household consumption. ISCA News later described the initiative as supporting production and entrepreneurship.
Activities
Moradi is a social and climate change activist, and advocates for expanding green space through tree-planting and for the conservation of natural resources through watershed management. With his students, he has participated in recurring tree-planting programs in natural-resource areas, including annual activities around Tehran on Arbor Day. Moradi has also advocated watershed management as an important response to Iran's water scarcity and flood risks, emphasizing national coordination, the management of flood channels and water pathways, dredging sedimented dams, and changes in cultural attitudes toward urban ecology.
Moradi has given talks at various Iranian universities and religious sites such as Fatima Masumeh Shrine, Imam Reza Shrine, and Shah Cheragh, and has given international speeches.
He was the main speaker at memorial services for actor Khosrow Shakibai, singer Morteza Pashaei, TV host Farzad Jamshidi, the environmentalist Mohammad Ali Inanloo, and the Iranian military officer Qasem Soleimani. He also delivered a speech following an earthquake in Kermanshah, Iran.
"Bolbol-e Tehran" and Environmental Initiatives
Prior to his official administrative roles, Moradi frequently advocated for urban wildlife protection and environmental responsibility, framing the decline of urban bird populations as a key civic issue. Following his appointment as head of the Cultural and Art Organization of Tehran Municipality, he established "Tehran, the City of Kindness" as the core operational slogan, expanding public ethics to encompass ecosystem protection and urban wildlife care. Cultural symbolic gestures, such as distributing "Kindness Packages" (including birdhouses and bird feeders) at artistic events, were integrated into municipal initiatives. In October 2014, this approach culminated in the public campaign "Tehran Has Birds" (Persian: تهران پرنده دارد), designed to foster environmental empathy and civic responsibility among families and children. Across 11 major cultural centers and public parks in Tehran, hundreds of birds were released into the wild alongside educational workshops. Going beyond official events, Moradi personally funded the purchase and release of a substantial number of wild white-spectacled bulbuls and white-eared bulbuls that had been captured by poachers in southern Iran and transported to Tehran for commercial trade. He framed this personal expenditure as prioritizing the shared civic experience of restored urban bird song over the private ownership of caged pet birds. To sustain this initiative, an independent campaign and digital archive were created under the name "Bolbol-e Tehran" (Bulbul of Tehran).
Expert Analysis and Receptions
The initiative generated significant discourse among environmental experts and regulatory authorities:
Administrative and Regulatory Considerations: Officials from the Environment Department of Tehran Province raised administrative concerns regarding the absence of formal wildlife release permits, evaluating the initiative through standard municipal regulatory frameworks.
Ornithological Evaluation: Conversely, Esmail Kahram, a prominent Iranian ornithologist and advisor to the Department of Environment, praised the initiative as a "pure idea for promoting a culture of kindness" and an effective public education tool. Kahram highlighted the ecological resilience and adaptability of bulbuls to Tehran's urban climate, noting that releasing wild-caught species contributed positively to restoring urban biodiversity.
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