Shotemur was born on December 1, 1899 in Shughnon District, Tajikistan, to a poor farmer family. At the age of 13 Shotemur started assisting his family on the field. From 1914 to 1918 he worked at a factory in Tashkent. In 1921 he began pursuing a political career and was sent back to the Pamirs as a member of the political-military team. From 1923 to 1924 he worked as an instructor of the national minorities department of Tajikistan’s Communist Party Central Committee. At the same time he headed the Tajik communist section.
During his lifetime Shirinsho Shotemur held many leading positions in the Tajik government and in the communist party. In 1937 Shotemur was charged with participation in an anti-Soviet nationalistic organization and arrested in Moscow. Later the same year the Military board of the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced Shotemur to death. He was executed on October 27, 1937. In 1956 Shotemur was posthumously rehabilitated by Military board of the Supreme Court of the USSR.