Tehran’s leadership operates from a place of profound fear, particularly of internal revolt, according to a French-born Jewish woman who cultivated rare access to the Islamic Republic’s inner circles. Catherine Perez-Shakdam says this insecurity, not strength, defines the regime’s actions.
A Regime Haunted by the Threat of Uprising
Perez-Shakdam’s account reveals a leadership deeply scarred by past protests and fixated on maintaining control, especially over women.
- Perez-Shakdam gained access to senior Iranian officials, including the late President Ebrahim Raisi and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, by positioning herself as a Western voice critical of the United States and Israel.
- The late filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh served as her key facilitator, effectively granting her unrestricted movement within Iran.
- Supreme Leader Khamenei reportedly expressed to Perez-Shakdam a fear that the regime nearly collapsed during the 2009 Green Movement protests.
- Perez-Shakdam describes a leadership obsessed with projecting authority and suppressing dissent, particularly among women, whom they view as the greatest threat to their control.
What explains the Islamic Republic’s seemingly harsh policies? Perez-Shakdam argues that the regime’s actions stem from a deep-seated fear of losing power, fueled by past challenges to its legitimacy.
Perez-Shakdam deliberately sought to become someone the Iranian regime would find valuable. “I wanted to make myself into somebody that the regime would want to invite, someone that they would see as useful and an asset for them,” she said.
Much of her access flowed through Nader Talebzadeh, a filmmaker and propagandist central to Tehran’s state-aligned media. According to Perez-Shakdam, Talebzadeh’s endorsement provided a “pass” that bypassed institutional barriers. “So Nader gave me…the absolute pass in that I had been vetted by him and therefore nobody could touch me,” she explained. “Nobody could stop me at the airport. I could do whatever. I mean, whatever.”
This freedom allowed her to navigate Iran with a level of access rarely granted to Westerners, even those with journalistic credentials, offering a unique perspective on the country’s power dynamics.
That insecurity was particularly evident in discussions surrounding the 2009 Green Movement, when millions protested the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Perez-Shakdam recounted an insider’s account of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appearing visibly shaken during the unrest, viewing the situation as an existential crisis.
“He told me that it was the day that the regime almost fell,” she said. “That they were so close and that the people did not realize just how close [Khamenei] was from losing everything.” The experience, she believes, left a lasting psychological mark on Iran’s leadership.
“They are terrified of the people, which is why you see the repression that you see in the streets,” Perez-Shakdam said.
Perez-Shakdam also described a carefully orchestrated meeting with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, designed to project dominance rather than foster dialogue. Khamenei, she said, dominated the conversation, intent on asserting his intellectual and moral authority.
“I think he just wanted to impress upon me that, you know, he was a god among men.”
During the exchange, Khamenei questioned her views on whether God could be genocidal. “The first thing he asked me was whether or not I thought that God was genocidal,” she recalled. “I looked at him and I was like, no, obviously not.”
Khamenei then drew a comparison between state-sanctioned killings and the natural cycle of life, suggesting that violence committed in the service of the Islamic Republic shouldn’t be considered genocide—a comparison Perez-Shakdam found deeply disturbing.
Looking ahead, Perez-Shakdam argues that the fear of popular revolt, particularly from women, remains the defining characteristic of Iran’s leadership. She believes Iranian women represent the greatest challenge to the regime’s ability to control future generations.
