Catherine Perez-Shakdam
Catherine Perez-Shakdam is a French, political analyst and commentator, she specializes in West Asian and Islamic affairs. Shakdam is a former consultant for UNSC on Yemen and she is an expert on Islamic terrorism, radicalization and antisemitism. Early life. Shakdam was born into a secular Jewish family in France. She later was forced to convert to Islam when she was married to a Muslim man from Yemen. She wrote extensively on Islamic movements and the Islamic Republic of Iran 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", IRIB, "The Majalla", Press TV, "HuffPost", the Foreign Policy Association, "Yemen Post", "The Oslo Times", Your Middle East, "The Guardian", RT, Mehr News and Tasnim News agencies, "The Foreign Policy Journal", The Duran, "MintPress News", "the American Herald Tribune", openDemocracy, "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, Tasnim News, 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 . She accompanied Raisi on his travels to Rasht 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 channel supporting the former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 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 without ever mentioning her Jewish ancestry.