This originally appeared as a larger post at the blog Pedestrian. It has been edited for length, but you can read the entire version at the original website.
“You might have heard of Laleh Sedigh: Iran’s first female race car driver – in both circuit and rally driving. She has yet to prove herself in international competitions, but she has competed against her male colleagues in Iran and has won on many occasions.
She is also a PHD student in Industrial Engineering although I have yet to verify that bit of info from an official news agency.
Personally, I think her website pushes it too far: “A female activist and a believer of equal rights for women, Laleh Sedigh has broken many barriers on her way to becoming an icon for female rights in Iran and the Middle East.”
Icon? Activist? Middle East? O.K.
Although her courage for entering such a male dominated atmosphere is certainly laudable, and it has certainly broken barriers, it has done nothing special for the plight of Iranian woman. Anyone informed on Iranian politics would know that a thousand women chanting, protesting, pleading or even begging is not going to convince anybody to do anything for them.
And so why authorities let her do what she does has nothing specific to do with her actions or her activism. They wanted to let her do it and if they didn’t, she could do nothing about it.
Just go over to the department of Physical Education at any university and let the students tell you about their daily dilemmas, problems and setbacks. Athletics for women in Iran is extremely deprived and limited to a point of catastrophe.
But Ms. Sedigh never mentions that. She does however quite often mention how “great” a place her country is for women’s athletics.
Of course she won’t say anything against her male superiors. She wants to keep her hobby. And let’s not forget: it’s a win-win situation. She gets to compete in her race and they get to toot their own horn: Look everybody! Women have all the rights they need! What else could they want? We’re even allowing them to compete in car races with men.
In any given situation where a group of people are being treated unjustly, one single person attending to a completely uncommon, unheard of task (uncommon in comparison to the commodities and plights that the group is striving for) is not going to grant them their rights. We are dealing with a society that sees a woman as half a man – take that quandary and spread it throughout the entirety of the cultural, social and philosophical ladder.
If you ask me, ordinary women who work for women’s athletics leave a much more profound impact – something that Ms. Sedigh has never spoken of or worked for. Sure, she can be a race car driver, a bungee jumper or a paraglider and also aspire to achieve a better status for fellow females in her society. But that’s something she has never done. In fact, her constant praise works the complete opposite.
Just for being a female race car driver does not make her an activist; courageous yes, but activist no. Most Iranian women will never have the opportunity, cash, circumstance or even desire to race cars.
With persistent demand, however, they can obtain rights to play soccer or attend Yoga or be given proper physical education classes at school. While phys-ed is taken quite seriously in boy’s schools, it is hardly ever given attention in schools dedicated to females.
I think that should be the first plight of any woman wanting to achieve something for women’s athletics in Iran.
So whatever she does, please, let’s leave her actions for what they are – and they certainly aren’t activism.”
Editor’s thoughts: At Melinda’s request, I’m writing my own take on this. Though I understand the value of Pedestrian’s analysis, I see Ms. Sedigh’s value as a role model. For argument’s sake: Is it not possible for her to be a role model? Perhaps there are other young girls who want to race, and seeing Ms. Sedigh do it makes them think that they can, too. While their future of racing hinges on beaurocracy, isn’t it important to plant the idea into their minds that they are capable of doing such a thing ?
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This brings up a really good point. I noticed your comment on the original post (the URL needs a minor fix, by the way), and I’d love it if you ran your own short commentary on the piece you posted. The “role model” point is completely valid, and it’s not covered in this post.I’m confused by the title of the post, however. What does Sedigh’s appearance, or “pretty face,” have to do with the argument of the author? It seems to be more about the image that is the existence of a female race-car driver, not her own appearance.
Oooohahahahahaa! Good point Melinda! The second half is about pretty faces and makeup in Middle Eastern sports figures…guess I got them mixed up in an attempt to have a witty title!!Thanks; I’ll make some changes!
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I just wanted to give a little explanation as to why I overlooked the fact that Laleh Sedigh might end up being a much-needed role model in Iranian society.I agree with your viewpoint that a role model such as this one could be just the thing needed for Iranian women.Then again, you have to look at everything in its own context.I am guessing that you would be from the U.S … and I think you are using the American interpretation of “role model” in this story. But in Iran, public figures – other than politicians – have very, very little impact; an impact smaller than you could ever imagine. One great reason for this is the media. State television is the only medium that is available to most everybody in the country and it goes to great lengths to take out anything it deems inappropriate or unnecessary. Other forms like movies, magazines, newspapers and such are only available to the population in a handful of cities. A person like Laleh Sedigh has never been featured in television. Iranian TV is funny. It even censors those Iranian movies for instance, that have legal permission from the cultural ministry to be shown – after the ministry has itself censored them to great detail. She is only every so often in a newspaper article. That’s it. About sports, aside from soccer, very little is known amongst the masses. Race driving does not even get to anywhere else in Iran except for Tehran. Add to that the fact that an 8, 18, or even 28 year old women in Iranian society does not see or find or seek her role models in public figures. It’s just not the way our culture functions.Add to that the fact that Ms. Sedigh comes from an extremely privileged background – a background that 95% of Iranians just don’t have. So she is certainly not the “every man” (or the every woman in this case)Although she seems too interesting to be unknown, the fact is that she is not that well known to people – even in Tehran. Forget the rest of Iran. In fact, her fame is more international than national. So in the end, although potentially something like this did have the potential to become an icon for many women …That’s just not the way it works here. Every society has got its quirks. And this is one of ours.