Iran's only professional race car driver Laleh Seddigh offers some tips

BENGALURU: There's an easy charm about Iran's only professional race car driver Laleh Seddigh who was in Bengaluru on Monday. The 37-year-old, who started driving at 13, began her professional racing career around 1997 when she was studying for her University degree.

Prodded by a friend who said she drove well and strong, she decided to take it up full time, becoming the first woman in Iran to be granted permission for competing in a male-dominated sport.

Titled as `little Schumacher', owing to her petite frame, Laleh has managed to beat men at their game in a society that has huge reservations against women leading public lives. “My male competitors did everything to dissuade me. But I have always believed in myself and my love for this sport. And this is what makes me strong,“ she says.

Taking her racing career forward, Seddigh has now graduated to coaching women in her country who want to take up racing as a sport. She is a role model of sorts, for the young and aspiring, nextgeneration Iranian girls. While she strongly advocates women empowerment, she refuses to be labelled a feminist.

“I always tell my students and women around me that they can achieve anything that they want to. However, I don't subscribe to feminism as it has it has own limitations. I believe in equal rights for men and women and in the synergy of the two sexes,“ adds the brave sportswoman.

The ace driver, who has won accolades at home and on global racing tracks, is also fiercely patriotic. Even after facing incidents of sabotage, struggling with permissions, not always getting her due, she choose to stay back in Tehran over moving to a different country to pursue her sport.

“My presence may not be so important in another country . I pre fer to be in Iran because that is where I am needed which is what keeps me going each day ,“ she says. Motor sports, which is followed as the third most popular sport in Iran after football and wrestling, holds a great promise for women now and she wants to support the game, she adds.

In India for first time, she finds Indians warm and friendly . But what surprised her is the incessant honking of drivers. “While it's a way to send a message to each other on the road, too much of it causes a driver to get distracted or even jolt which can cause accidents. I would suggest the Indian government to start better managing the driving ecosystem here as with time there will be more cars on the road and it will get even more difficult to manage traffic,“ she says.