Vicki Shiran (; February 28, 1947 − March 15, 2004) was an Israeli criminologist, sociologist, poet, film director, media personality and activist. She was a leader of a movement promoting Mizrahi Jewish consciousness in Israel. She was an advocate of equal rights and played a key role in the fight for the advancement of Mizrahim (Jews who originate from Arab or Muslim countries). She was among the founders of The Mizrahi Democratic Coalition and the Feminist group Achoti, and is considered one of the founding mothers of the Mizrahi feminist movement. Early life Victorine "Vicki" Ben Natan was born in Cairo, to parents Salvo and Fortuna Ben Natan. Salvo, originally from Alexandria, had an accounting degree, but worked as a laborer in a textile factory. The family, including her sisters Odette (b. 1944) and Verjane (b. 1950), immigrated to Israel in 1951, when she was 4. Her brother Uzi was born there, in 1956. She spent her childhood in the Hatikva (hope in Hebrew) slum of Tel Aviv. In 1960, her father lost his job in the recession, and she was forced to leave school at the age of 13, and go to work to help support her family. She completed her matriculation exams at 17, by going to night school. In 1974, she married Haim Shiran (Shakiran), a filmmaker originally from Meknes, Morocco. They had two daughters. Academics Shiran received her BA in literature, history and criminology, and her MA in criminology from Tel Aviv University. In 1991 she completed another master's degree and a PhD at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at New York University. Her doctoral dissertation was titled "Political Corruption – The Power of the Game: The Case of Israel". The work was based on archival, legal and media research, dealing with corruption in Israeli politics and discrimination against Mizrahi politicians. Shiran analyzed prominent cases of political corruption and white-collar crime in Israel between 1948 and 1988. According to Shiran's analysis, the political and legal systems tend to severely punish Mizrahi and Arab politicians belonging to small parties, while on the other hand showing restraint towards, or even ignoring the actions of politicians who are closer to the ruling hegemony. In the 1990s she taught criminology and gender at Beit Berl Academic College, and taught at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Department of Law and Criminology. In 2003, she founded the Women's and Gender