Born in California to Iranian-American Parents, Shaheen started learning to read and write Farsi from an early age. He eventually started teaching the younger children at the Borna Cultural House, where he had himself learned the language.

Later, after he had gained more teaching experience by tutoring Math and History, he had an
idea: To start a cross-continental online platform for teaching English to Iranian village children in small groups. In this way, the children would improve not only their English, but also their confidence in their communication skills and their exposure to American culture through a Farsi-speaker from the USA.

And that is how Simorgh English was born.