Pedestrian

 

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 applaudable, 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.

But that’s not why I started this post.

I don’t know whether this is considered a virtue, or a vice: she’s showing up for a sports race, but look at all the makeup – not to mention plastic surgery. It is certainly not overdone, but would Erin Crocker or Giovanna Amati end up at NASCAR or Formula One with a hint of the stuff?

              

If she were from anywhere else (anywhere else other than the Iranian, Arab or Turkish world of course) there would not have been a drop of foundation, lipstick, mascara, eyeliner or blush on her face.

And this is nothing. I remember seeing a picture of the 1971 national female’s basketball team. These ladies were there for a photo shoot, but goodness me, you thought they were there to model lingerie. They were so heavily pancaked in makeup, their hair was so extremely overdone and their basketball uniforms so skimpy that lingerie came more to mind than sports.

At first, I thought that the pictures were dedicated to a special shoot. But, I consecutively saw their pictures in numerous magazines and newspapers and that’s the way they always looked.

I look at Sedigh’s pictures and I can’t help but think that it just doesn’t feel right for a race car driver to show up at a match with all that makeup.

On another level, somebody would argue that she is combining her “race car driver”ness with her “Iranian”ness. Good or bad, Iranian women love a face swarmed with makeup and she’s just walking in consent to that desire. Her makeup is not even overdone and so what’s the problem?

I remember the girls in school who showed up to class with their hair and face completely “fixed”. I would marvel those who were also excellent students. I barely had enough time to complete my school work and how they succeeded in spending 3 hours on their face everyday and attending to their studies with perfection was beyond me.

I didn’t necessarily agree with it and yet, I did think it was somehow or other admirable.

With that said, I still think an athlete – a symbol of perfect human physique and its capabilities – should stay away from the inauthenticities of cosmetics when competing.

It’s like the Yoga instructors in Tehran’s Yoga institute.

Some were so heavily drowned in foundation and plastic surgery that you could hardly make out their real face.

Now Yoga is supposed to be the most “spiritual” or “calm” of athletics. There is supposed to be a holistic, natural image attached to the endeavor. There was something eery about watching an instructor go on about Shad-Sampat while her eye shadow was so extremely overdone that it was falling on her cheeks.

Of course, sexism towards females exists all over the world. And you can always raise an eyebrow at the choices female athletes make: Amanda Beard posing for playboy is certainly not something you hear everyday. Female athletes often become sex symbols – sometimes even by their own choosing. That phenomenon is non-existent in our country simply because of governmental restrictions.

But I still think there’s a subtle difference here. Yes, female athletes can become sex symbols – they can choose to do so, amongst other reasons, because it creates a gargantuan jump in their salaries. But in Iran, this has nothing to do with cash, fame or recognition. It’s just the way females think they should be.

People like Ms. Sedigh or those basketball players only work to establish those beliefs.

Of course, these are all personal choices. Whether you are a student, a race car driver or a Yoga instructor, your main aim is to get the job done. What attire you choose while you do so is nobody’s concern.

And yet, I can’t help but think that it all stems from a deeper insecurity. That indeed no matter whom you are, a race car driver, a Yoga instructor or a student, you’re only worthwhile if you look pretty – and “pretty” here has a strict definition. No matter who you are or what you aspire to be, you need layers on top of you to consider yourself presentable in your society.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, the observer – or the man in this case. But for change to occur in the observer, the observed has to do something about it first.