Women exposing any body part beyond the hands and face can be sentenced to up to 70 lashes and two months in prison. Most women are barred from inheritance and the right to initiate a divorce, while men can hold multiple wives. Public buildings often have separate entrances for women and men.
Iran is not the kind of place one expects to find a female dirt bike champion; indeed, Iranian women are not even legally entitled to apply for a motorcycle license.
Meet Noora Naraghi, recent winner of Iran’s first-ever female championship in ‘motocross’, an all-terrain motorbike sport derived from the words “motorcycle” and “cross country”, dubbed by Foreign Policy magazine as an “example of human ingenuity in dealing with dumbass governments.”
Raised in a family of motorcyclists, the 22-year-old Iranian woman says her first time on a bike was at age four.
“I was born and grow up in motocross family,” she says. “My father took me to a park in front of his motocross store. He started a 50cc Montesa for me, put me on the bike, pushed me and said ‘Go!’ I didn’t know how to use the clutch or brakes so I just rode around. When I got tired he stopped me and helped me come down off the bike.”
“I don’t remember my exact feeling exactly but I do remember that afterwards I asked my mom to take me to my father’s store so that I could ask him to teach me more riding,” she recalls. “It was really exciting for me to learn to ride a motorbike.”
18 years later Naraghi is Iran’s best female motorcyclist, with a younger brother who likes to ride and two parents still on bikes.
Naraghi says that as she grew up, social pressure and Iranian gender norms dissuaded her from riding.
“When I was a little child even my very close relatives made fun of me,” she remembers. “They told me riding motocross is useless: girls aren’t coming to ride with you, and you can never even have a race in Iran because there are no female motocross riders except my mother and me.”
“The motocross federation in Iran doesn’t let my mother and I ride on their tracks, and there are no other girls to ride and train with me,” she explains. “But I knew that one day girls would come and learn to ride, and that we’d be able to practice and race together.”
“My father also told me ‘don’t worry about what people say, just think about your sport, your health and be hopeful,” Naraghi says. “But sometimes I got tired of it and just wanted to stop riding.”
Then she met Hadi, another Iranian motocross enthusiast who she eventually married.
“Hadi and some of his friends started a motocross club named Xanyar,” she remembers. “Hadi encouraged me to train more and learn to ride better and that gave me hope.”
“The Xanyar club helped me to improve my skills and allowed me to work as a coach for girls who like motocross,” Naraghi continues.
“One of my big dreams was to race for the first time. Hadi and I decided to follow our dreams and we created Iran’s first race for female motocross riders.”
“I knew it would eventually happen, and that people would realize that woman in Iran can also ride motocross,” she says. “For me, it was the beginning of new and big things. I was happy not only to get first place in the race, but to get to race with other girls. It was a great feeling and I think it was the first time I loved riding.”
Naraghi says that while she has been an inspiration for some, she is largely unknown in Iran.
“The Motocross Federation of Iran doesn’t help us, doesn’t let us to practice on their tracks, and don’t advertise motocross for girls, so no one even knows that girls can ride motocross,” she explains. “So I’m not a celebrity, but when they see us, people get excited. Also people who ride motocross in other Iranian cities know us and sometimes female riders from other cities call me, encourage me and tell me that they’d like to come to Tehran and ride with me.”
Naraghi says having her husband, brother and both parents all involved in a dangerous sport doesn’t make her nervous.
“One day my brother didn’t use his safety gear and he had an accident,” she remembers. “It was a disaster.”
“When I saw him and his bike I was really afraid,” Naraghi continues. “I thought to myself, I will never allow my children ride motocross. What if they have such an accident?”
“But after a month my brother Meraat was back riding, and I thought I will never let them ride motocross without wearing safety gear,” she says.
“After all, what if they don’t have an accident, enjoy the sport and have incredible success?”
