- The Woman Who Burned Iran Without a Matchstick: Mossad’s Spy in Tehran
- Catherine Perez-Shakdam: The Journalist Who Became Israel’s Deadliest Spy
By Jai Kumar Verma
New Delhi. 11July 2025. In one of the most audacious intelligence coups of modern times, Mossad reportedly deployed a deep-cover agent who penetrated the highest echelons of Iran’s military and political establishment. French-born Catherine Perez-Shakdam, a journalist of Jewish origin turned Shia Muslim, infiltrated Iran’s elite circles, allegedly passing sensitive information that severely compromised the Islamic Republic’s strategic defences.
Catherine Perez-Shakdam, a French-born journalist of Jewish origin, who was working as Mossad spy, successfully penetrated in the Iran’s highest echelons gave a stern blow to the security of Islamic Republic of Iran. According to knowledgeable sources Catherine, a courageous lady converted to Shia Muslim and successfully got access in the innermost circles of defence, political and religious groups of Iran. She also got access to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. She was nicknamed as ‘lady killer’ and became a game changer in recent Israel Iran conflict. Mossad successfully evicted her before the attacks but later on countrywide search held in which several suspected Israeli spies were caught and at least three Iranian citizens who allegedly cooperated with her were executed. Posters of her photograph displayed all over Tehran and security forces have arrested large number of persons on the suspicion of espionage.
She took a perfect ‘Deep Cover’ of a Western journalist who pretended that she wanted to know more about Shia Islam while residing in a Shia dominated country. She also claimed that she wanted to explore how the country is ruled under Shia Islam. The ‘Deep Cover’ for an intelligence agent refers to the sustained and carefully constructed identity and background an agent assumes to operate covertly for an extended period, often for years or even their entire career, without revealing their true affiliation with an intelligence agency. This cover is crucial for maintaining operational security and enabling the agent to gather intelligence or carry out other clandestine activities within a target organization or environment. The ‘Deep Cover’ requires a meticulous creation and maintenance of a false identity. This involves not just a name and job title, but a complete backstory, relationships, and a convincing persona that can withstand intense scrutiny.
Catherine Perez-Shakdam was born in a secular Jewish family in France. Her maternal grandfather fought in the French Resistance against the Nazi occupation and the collaborationist Vichy regime while her paternal grandfather was a Holocaust survivor. She studied psychology and also got postgraduate degrees in finance and communications from University of London. Besides a journalist she was also a political analyst, commentator and expert in West Asian politics. She also worked as consultant in United Nations Security Council on Yemen and had deep knowledge of Islam, radicalisation, Islamic extremism and terrorism. She also worked for seven years for Wikistrat which is an Israeli geostrategic and analysis firm. In London she converted to Islam to marry a Yemeni Sunni Muslim. She got divorce in 2014 and in 2017 she reached Iran and publicly claimed herself as a Shia Muslim. She also showed interest to understand the ideology of Islamic Republic of Iran.
Catherine had taken the cover of a journalist hence wrote articles for important news-media such as Tehran Times, Tasnim News, Mehr News and Mashregh News. Her writings were also published in the Khamenei.ir, which is the official website of Iran’s Supreme Leader, indicates her acceptability in Iranian regime. There are also reports that she was employed by Khamenei as a writer for his website although once she was exposed all the articles were deleted from the website.
She was writing articles, appreciating the Islamic Revolution and was critical to Western strategies, culture and way of life. Iranians liked that criticism as it was coming from a French journalist. As a journalist she interviewed Ebrahim Raisi in 2017 for Russia Today. Raisi was the presidential candidate at that time. She met several important Iranian military officers including General Qassem Soleimani, the former head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp’s (IRGC) Quds Force. Her closeness with IRGC gave her the opportunity to procure classified information about Iranian armed forces, nuclear scientists and others. Israel fully utilised this information to exterminate senior Iranian commanders, nuclear scientists and sensitive installations of the country.
VAJA the intelligence agency of Iran claimed that she was sent to Iran after giving training by Mossad. She was beautiful, canny and daring and with her charisma and intelligent planning successfully hoodwinked the security forces of Iran. She was knowledgeable and was familiar with Middle Eastern politics. She not only dressed herself in black chador but also quoted Imam Khomeini with full respect and admiration. She spoke perfect Persian and she was regular in her prayers.
She became friendly with wives of senior army and civilian officers hence she got access to not only in their homes but also in the sensitive areas and from there she collected important and actionable intelligence. The wives of senior officers told her the movements, locations, and schedules of their husbands which she passed on to Mossad, consequent upon these senior military generals were eliminated through air strikes. She also collected information about military installations as well as the nuclear sites. She asked innocent questions from the wives of senior generals about the responsibilities and tensions of their husbands and the wives talk about late-night meetings, troop movements, names of army officers, scientists and even about the surveillance and threat of treachery. Catherine listened all these information and passed them to her handlers.
She helped Mossad agents in establishing a drone base near Tehran and equipping it with precision-guided weapons. Mossad agents with the help of drone and precision-guided weapons successfully destroyed Iranian air defences as well as ballistic missile launchers. Destruction of Iranian air defences, disabling of ballistic missile launchers and death of senior army commanders including armed forces Chief of Staff, crippled the Iranian resistance and ability of counterattack on Israel. Her infiltration by Mossad was planned and devastating.
Israel equipped with precise intelligence about Israeli commanders, their missile launches pads, their aerial defence and nuclear sites, launched Operation Shabgard (Nightwalker) on the nights of 13-14 June. Israeli air strikes not only disabled Iranian defences but also devastated Iran’s nuclear sites at Esfahan, Natanz, Parchin. Israel eliminated eight top IRCG officers, seven nuclear scientists were killed, three leading Quods Force Commanders were also exposed. Information about these targets were not collected through technical intelligence but this information was collected through human intelligence. The experts claim that Catherine was behind passing this vital information.
As her infiltration was well planned and flawless, same way her escape was also punctilious. She escaped through Zagros Mountains in the dark nights with the help of Kurdish contacts. She was airlifted by Mossad agents through helicopter in the dark nights without leaving any sign of her escape.
Iranian security organisations came to know about the damage after her leaving Iran. The security agencies took severe actions, her network was shattered, people associated with her were pitilessly punished, her articles and Persian-written blog, were washed out. Her Twitter account was checked and disabled, her phone logs were examined and her meetings in Karaj and Shiraz were thoroughly investigated. The security sleuths checked the saloons she was visiting, the prayer rooms were inspected and a little suspicion of her connection anywhere had dire consequences. In Tehran people were afraid of taking her name or showing any association with her. She was known as ‘the lady who burned Iran without a matchstick.’ Iran is the world’s second most executioner after China, tried to catch her but as she escaped Iran executed people associated with her or came under suspicion.
Catherine was an important participant of Israel’s ‘Operation Rising Lion’ which was a well-planned operation of Israel which devastated Iranian regime as well as its confidence. The operation which continued for years and included collection of actionable real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, was based upon deep operational penetration, destruction of Iran’s command and control systems including its decision-making process.
Analysts claim that she worked against Iran as she inculcated a deep resentment towards Islam because of maltreatment she received in Yemen by donning a hijab. She was also not satisfied with her Yemeni husband and felt bad that the identities of her children were battered. Although she claimed that she was not a Mossad spy and this allegation was only because of her Jewish heritage but MintPress News investigation, her association with Wikistrat, an Israeli- American firm related to intelligence and her close association with top Iranian establishment indicates that she was working for Mossad. Not only this Catherine’s present whereabouts are not known which indicates that she has changed her identity which also strengthens that she worked for Mossad. She was a great spy and collected and passed sensitive and actionable intelligence to Israel which helped in the destruction of Iran’s nuclear sites and its defence forces.
Catherine Perez-Shakdam’s story reads like a spy thriller, but the consequences were real and far-reaching. Her deep-cover mission allegedly enabled Israel to pre-empt Iranian threats by eliminating top commanders, sabotaging ballistic launchers, and crippling nuclear facilities. Her silent exit, much like her quiet entrance, left behind a trail of fear, executions, and shattered networks. Whether hailed as a brilliant operative or condemned as a master manipulator, her role has undeniably altered the course of Israeli-Iranian hostilities and may serve as a case study in the power and peril of human intelligence.
(Jai Kumar Verma is a Delhi-based strategic analyst and member of United Services Institute of India and The Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses,. The views in the article are solely the author’s. He can be contacted at editor.adu@gmail.com)
