Catherine Perez-Shakdam is a French journalist, political analyst and commentator. She specializes in West Asian and Islamic affairs. Shakdam is a former consultant for

UNSC The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international peace and security, recommending the admission of new UN members to the General Assembly, an ...

on Yemen and she is an expert on

Islamic terrorism Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism, radical Islamic terrorism, or jihadist terrorism) refers to terrorist acts carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists. Since at least the 1990s, Islami ...

, radicalization and

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

Early life

Shakdam was born into a secular Jewish family in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Her maternal grandfather fought Nazis during the Nazi occupation of the country. Her paternal grandfather was a

Holocaust survivor Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, its collaborators before and during World War II ...

. She has a bachelor's degree in Psychology and two Master's degrees in finance and communications from

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. During her studies at University of London she met a Muslim man from Yemen and later converted to

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

during their marriage. However she later became a

Shia Muslim Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...

and wrote several books and many articles about

Shia Islam Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...

. She divorced from her husband in 2014 and has custody of her two children. She now identifies as a

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

and as a Jew.

Journalistic career

Prior to becoming a full time journalist, she worked for Wikistrat, an Israeli geostrategic and analysis firm, for seven years. She wrote extensively for the Russian International Affairs Council, ''

Tehran Times The ''Tehran Times'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Iran, founded in 1979 as the self-styled "voice of the Islamic Revolution". While not state-owned, it is considered state-controlled and closely tied to the hardline factio ...

'',

IRIB The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB; ) or Seda va Sima () for short, formerly called National Iranian Radio and Television until the Iranian revolution of 1979, is an Iranian state-controlled media corporation that holds a monopo ...

, '' The Majalla'',

Press TV Press TV (stylised as PRESSTV) is an Iranian state-owned news media organisation, owned by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), that broadcasts in the English and French languages. The 24-hour channel, which has headquarters in Tehra ...

, ''

HuffPost ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

'', the

Foreign Policy Association The Foreign Policy Association (FPA, formerly known as the League of Free Nations Association) is an American non-profit foreign policy organization. According to the FPA, the organization aims to spread global awareness and understanding of US f ...

, '' Yemen Post'', ''The Oslo Times'', Your Middle East, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', RT, Mehr News and

Tasnim News Tasnim News Agency () is a semi-official news agency in Iran associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Launched in 2012, its purpose is to cover a variety of political, social, economic and international subjects along with ma ...

agencies, ''The Foreign Policy Journal'', The Duran, ''

MintPress News ''MintPress News'' (''MPN'') is an American far-left news website. It was founded and edited by Mnar Adley and was launched in January 2012, and also publishes the ''MintCast'' podcast. The site covers political, economic, foreign affairs and en ...

'', ''the American Herald Tribune'',

openDemocracy openDemocracy is an independent media platform and news website based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2001, openDemocracy states that through reporting and analysis of social and political issues, they seek to "challenge power and encourage d ...

, ''The Age of Reflection'' and many more. Shakdam is also the managing director of Access Media and served as Special Adviser for the Middle East for the late Prince Ali Seraj of Afghanistan. She is the director and founder of Veritas-Consulting. She was affiliated with Shafaqna Institute for Middle East Studies in the UK (2015–2017).

Work in Iran

Shakdam traveled frequently to Iran and became a regular author in many Iranian right wing news agencies such as

Mashregh News Mashregh News (, ) is a non-governmental news website based in Tehran, Iran. It has been described as "close to the security and intelligence organizations" but till now there have been no clear documents to prove claims. Mashregh News often breaks ...

, Mehr News and even Iranian supreme leader's website "Khamenei.ir". In November 2021 Shakdam wrote in her blog in ''The Times of Israel'' that she is divorced and no longer a Muslim. She implied that her radical Muslim persona was in order to infiltrate Iran and other Muslim countries. Shakdam traveled to Iran in 2017 and met with then candidate

Ebrahim Raisi Ebrahim Raisolsadati (14 December 1960 – 19 May 2024), better known as Ebrahim Raisi, was an Iranian politician who served as the eighth president of Iran from 2021 until 2024 Varzaqan helicopter crash, his death in a helicopter crash in 202 ...

. She accompanied Raisi on his travels to

Rasht Rasht (; ) is a city in the Central District (Rasht County), Central District of Rasht County, Gilan province, Gilan province, Iran, serving as the capital of the province, the county, and the district. The city is also known as the "City of ...

and sat exclusively with him for an interview. Shakdam wrote in her blog that Iranian authorities trusted her because of her French nationality and marriage to a Muslim man. She wrote that she was invited by one of the important people of the revolution who studied in the United States. In February 2022 a

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

channel supporting the former Iranian President

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (born Mahmoud Sabbaghian on 28 October 1956) is an Iranian Iranian principlists, principlist and Iranian nationalism, nationalist politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. He is currently a mem ...

wrote an article based on the blog post in ''The Times of Israel'' that the highest level of Iranian government had been infiltrated by Israeli spies. Many Iranian right-wing news agencies immediately took down all the articles written by Shakdam and denied collaboration. Shakdam wrote in her blog that she detested Islam's disdain for women. She further added that prior to her visit to Iran she neither argued nor revealed her true intentions. Radical articles and pieces written by Shakdam were criticized heavily by many Jewish organizations such as Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and

MEMRI The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), officially the Middle East Media and Research Institute, is an American non-profit press monitoring organization co-founded by Israeli ex-intelligence officer Yigal Carmon and Israeli-American ...

without ever mentioning her

Jewish ancestry ''Zera Yisrael'' (), also known as ''Zera Kadosh'' (), is a legal category in ''Halakha'' that denotes the blood descendants of Jews who, for one reason or another, are not legally Jewish according to religious criteria. This is usually due to a ...

Books

* Perez-Shakdam, C. (2015). ''Arabia's Rising: Under the Banner of the First Imam''. (n.p.): CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, * Perez-Shakdam, C. (2016). ''From Mecca to the Plain of Karbala: Walking with the Holy Household of the Prophet''. (n.p.): CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. . * Perez-Shakdam, C. (2016). ''A Tale of Grand Resistance: Yemen, the Wahhabi and the House of Saud''. (n.p.): CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. .

References

https://www.gahspmedia.com/conversation/a-thousand-facets-of-katerina-perez-the-qu-a {{DEFAULTSORT:Perez-Shakdam, Catherine French people of Jewish descent 21st-century French Jews French women journalists Living people Jewish women journalists Jewish atheists French Zionists French former Shia Muslims French atheists Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century French journalists 21st-century French women writers French secular Jews Zionists

Early life

Journalistic career

Work in Iran

Books

See also

References