I collaborated on a translation about menstrual health

🤝 One of my 2025 goals has been collaboration.

This year, I’ve met a lot of amazing translators and started reflecting on how to go beyond language in order for my processes and partnerships to also better align with my values.

That’s how I ended up trying collaborative translation for the first time with Pauline Caclin.

Our first project together?

A Menstrual Products Guide designed for Muslim migrant communities and originally translated into Urdu and Arabic, an amazing resource created by Irise International, Dr Maria Tomlinson, the DiverseCity Development Trust, and the Menstrual Health Project.

When I first mentioned how useful this document would be in French, I witnessed someone using AI to translate it… without permission and with disastrous results. The text was full of errors and went against the organisation’s values.

So when Pauline suggested translating it together, I immediately said yes. We both wanted to make sure the French version was accurate, inclusive, and culturally relevant.

Here’s what we focused on:

🎯 Keeping a non-gendered approach to menstrual health (you know how important trans rights are to me) which is difficult in French because gender is everywhere, but we did it!

🎯 Going from a UK centered document to an international one because it is meant to be shared in French-speaking communities around the world

🎯 Adapting cultural and dietary references for Francophone Muslim communities that mainly come from Africa

🎁 We removed (nearly) all the supposedly neutral “il”, check it out, and let us know how we did in terms of fluidity.

You can find our full case study in my portfolio ici.

And access the resource in English, Urdu, Arabic and now French on this link.

And stay tuned, more collaborative projects should be coming. 👀

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👋 Hi! I’m Inès, I create and translate texts that change the world in English, Spanish and French.

✊ I write about inclusion, language and social justice. Follow me!

✉ You want your French communication to be inclusive? Send me a message!