He was also a professor of education at the Teacher Training University in Tehran and a member of High Council of the Cultural Revolution from 1982 until his death.

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 of culture in Mehdi Bazargan's interim government.

Bazargan and his entire cabinet resigned in November 1979 after the Ayatollah Khomeini's advisers supported the student occupation of the US embassy in Tehran.

[2] Subsequently, he was tasked, together with Mostafa Moein, Ahmad Ahmadi and Abdolkarim Soroush, with training and vetting professors, selecting students, and Islamizing universities and their curricula.