Dr Shabnam Moinipour is a human rights researcher, educator, and advocate whose work spans international human rights law, freedom of religion or belief, minority rights, gender equality, access to justice, and the protection of civil society. She is Programme Director at the Centre for Supporters of Human Rights and has also served as Senior Project Research Fellow at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, supporting the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.
Her work brings together research, teaching, advocacy, programme design, and policy engagement. She has led human rights programmes, developed monitoring and evaluation systems, conducted mixed-methods research, written grant proposals, managed donor-funded projects, and worked with universities, international organisations, diplomats, UN mechanisms, donors, and civil society groups.
Dr Moinipour has taught human rights, international human rights law, media and human rights, and mixed-methods research at the School of Advanced Study, University of London, the University of Westminster, the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education, and through civil society education platforms. She has supervised postgraduate dissertations and trained students, researchers, and civil society actors in research design, qualitative and quantitative methods, advocacy, and critical human rights analysis.
Much of her academic and policy work has focused on Iran, including religious persecution, gender discrimination, children’s right to education, the independence of the legal profession, landmines and disability rights, state media, migration, and the rights of minorities and civil society actors. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, and contributes to the field as Associate Editor of The International Journal of Human Rights and Editorial Board Member of Societal Impacts.