Iris has been a Programme Associate at the Red Umbrella Fund since 2022. The daughter and granddaughter of Tunisian and Algerian immigrants, she was born and grew up in Paris, France, where she worked in various sectors of the sex industry from 2007 to 2013. An early member of STRASS (the French sex workers’ trade union), she is also a long-time feminist and anti-racist activist, and has been involved in a wide range of grassroots movements (LGBTQ rights movements, disabled people’s rights movements, migrants’ rights, prison abolitionism, fighting islamophobia and antisemitism etc…) for over 15 years. After graduating in Languages, Literatures and Civilizations from the University of Nanterre, she became a language teacher and a freelance translator, working for clients such as the Global Network of Sex Work Projects, the Robert Carr Fund, GNP+ and UN Women Colombia. Iris moved to Cali, Colombia in 2017, where she worked on building international solidarity and alliances between community-based movements across continents. After living in Colombia for 5 years, she is now back in Paris. She speaks French, English, Spanish and some Arabic.
Iris
Programme Advisory Committee
Learn more about the sex worker activists that review applications and make our grantmaking decisions.