Shinwari was born in the Haska Mina village of
Shinwar in
Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan. He completed Islamic studies in
Kabul and became a teacher at
Ibn-i-Sina High School in 1954. A few years later he moved to Nangarhar and in 1974 he migrated to neighboring
Pakistan. In 2002, Shinwari was appointed Chief Justice by
Afghan President Hamid Karzai. In 2003 Shinwari spoke out against co-education—the education of boys and girls in shared facilities—while clarifying that he did not object to the education of girls and women in principle, just not in facilities shared with men and boys. Shinwari also led the Supreme Court's efforts to ban
cable TV. Shinwari addressed the 17
Afghans who had been held in Guantanamo whose
Combatant Status Review Tribunals determined they had never been "
enemy combatants" after all. and • they ruled that a girl, given as a bride when 9 years old and now 13, could not get a divorce from her abusive husband. According to the
International Crisis Group Shinwari appointed 128 judges, in addition to the original nine, and that of the credentials of 36 judges they were able to examine, none of the new judges had a degree in secular law: : ==Saudi peace talks==