94: "I met the Ayatollah when I lived in Iran. He asked me to write his memoirs. I'm Jewish". Catherine Perez-Shakdam

You’ve never heard a story like this!

Catherine Perez-Shakdam lives in the UK. She was born and raised in France and also lived in Yemen and Iran.

While living in Tehran and married with kids, she mixed in the regime classes, socialising, even going on pilgrimages to Iraq. Nothing unusual about that, you say.

But Catherine is Jewish, of French Sephardi background. As an outsider in plain sight, Catherine never revealed her Jewishness - obviously - so got up close to the leadership. She says it’s a deeply political and ideological regime, not religious.

Even Nihilistic. In Yemen, Catherine started writing articles critical of the Saudis which came to the attention of Iran. And while living there, she travelled with President Raisi on his private plane during election campaigning - and asked for and got a private audience with the Ayatollah Khamanei.

This is Catherine’s highly revealing and detailed story of what drives Iran’s ruling class. It’s a forensic eyewitness of a regime, which she says infiltrates the West - with murder on their minds.

And that’s not all about Catherine. She’s descended from Sephardim who stayed in Spain for centuries after the 1492 expulsion. The 1930s, in fact, when her family ran from Franco’s fascists aiming for Palestine - with tragic consequences.

So this is also a story of Jewish resilience. How trauma can travel through generations yet Jews emerge triumphant in a culture which strives for a better life for its children even at cost to oneself. Catherine is now a research fellow for the Henry Jackson Society.

This is the extraordinary life of Catherine Perez-Shakdam. Jonny Gould’s Jewish State is supported by UK Toremet. Help support Jonny Gould’s Jewish State (including Gift Aid) at https://www.donorbox.org/jgpodcast

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