Laleh Sadigh

Laleh Sadigh (* February 1977 in Tehran ) is an Iranian racing driver, national rally champion and university lecturer.

Laleh Sadigh, who teaches business administration at the University of Tehran , is considered the most famous female motor sportsman in her country.

Life

After winning the series for the first time in 2004, Sadigh also won all races of the 2005 national championship on a Ford Focus WRC, which were otherwise dominated by men. The Iranian Racing Association then informed her that she was no longer allowed to start. The background to this arrangement was probably that the athlete, who was always wearing a chador under her helmet with a headscarf and at the award ceremonies at the side of her male co-pilot, was celebrated by the liberal press and the public as an icon of feminism .

She herself suspected that her male opponents simply wouldn't like having a female racing champion in 2006 as well. So she found a mullah who stated in a fatwa that “there are no religious reasons forbidding women to race against men as long as the Islamic dress code is respected.” With regard to safety clothing in motorsport , this should not be a problem be.

However, Laleh Sadigh shifted her interests in motorsport to another area. Since no Iranian had previously successfully participated in a Formula 3 race, she decided on December 30, 2005 to participate in the corresponding national championship in Bahrain .

However, press photos showed her in the cockpit of a Formula BMW , which would make sense to some in two ways, as she had never driven in a monoposto before, it should be a good learning aid for the next step and the Formula BMW also has a pan-Asian racing series.

Before Sadigh discovered motorsport, she was already successful in equestrian sports and recently discovered skeet shooting for herself. In Iran she is jokingly dubbed “the little Schumacher ”.

literature

• Parastoo Do-Koohi: Interview With Laleh sadigh, Champion of Professional Speed ​​Car Race . Zanan 13 (116), January 2004, pp. 9-13.

Web links

• A young Iranian woman's victory in automobile racing and the regimes admonition . ( Memento of April 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) iranpressnews.com, March 6, 2006

Individual evidence

1. ↑ offscreen.com
2. ^ A young Iranian woman's victory in automobile racing and the regimes admonition . ( Memento of April 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) iranpressnews.com, March 6, 2006
3. ↑ iranian.com ( Memento of the original dated November 29, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Personal details . In: Der Spiegel . No. 41 , 2006, p. 232 ( online ).
5. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: iber-press.com
6. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: iber-press.com