Tuesday 14 March 2023, 7:30 pm UK, 3:30 pm ET. Few Jews have a background more extraordinary than Catherine Perez-Shakdam. Her family is descended from Sephardim who stayed in Spain until the 1930s.  Fleeing Franco’s Fascists, her grandfather wanted to reach Palestine. Her family ended up in Tunisia during WWII. Catherine was born in France and moved to Yemen with her Muslim husband. Her career as a  journalist and a political analyst took off, and permitted her to  gain a detailed knowledge of Yemen and to hobnob with the top echelons of the Iranian regime. In 2017 Catherine was the only Western media personality to have been granted a private audience with Ayatollah Khamenei and an interview with now-President Ibrahim Raisi.

Today a commentator living in the UK, Catherine is divorced  and has reclaimed her identity as a Jew and a staunch Zionist. She will tell us her remarkable story and also share her unique insights into the current political situation in Iran. (The photo shows Catherine as she looked when in Iran). Recording here.