My stripping career began when I was 3 years old taking my clothes off in the supermarket. Since then, I have worked locally and internationally, at fringe, burlesque and body painting festivals, strip clubs, erotica expos, swinger’s nights, bucks’ parties, queer events, circuses, theatres, in magazines and in porn. I have walked on people in high heels. I have undressed upside down on trapeze. I have pulled pearls out of my vagina. I have used cucumbers and Barbie dolls as dildos. I have done X rated double tricks in people’s garages that audiences described as ‘adult Cirque du Soleil’. I have dressed in latex and learned anal fisting and cock and ball torture. I have rode in limousines and hummers. I trained to hold my entire body out sideways on a pole. I can squirt ejaculate like a fire hydrant.

For me, the sex industry is a place of refuge. I have found belonging, community, identity and family. A few years ago I abandoned a legal career in one of Australia’s top-tier law firms in favour of public undressing. I have run for Parliament three times as a Candidate for the Australian Sex Party – for House of Representatives, Senate, and for Lord Mayor of Sydney.

I have three degrees, including a Masters on queer feminist activism in Sydney’s sex industry, and in 2013 I commenced a PhD on pornography. I have been a Guest Lecturer and Tutor in Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney for subjects such as Bodies Sexualities Identities and Sex Violence Transgression. I have worked in sexual health and development with the United Nations in both Australia (UNIFEM) and Eritrea (UNFPA). During the daytime, I teach pole dancing and work in policy and law reform as part of the sex worker rights movement in Australia.

Twitter: @ZahraStardust