‘We make our own norms’: Pakistan’s first woman racer breaks ground in global motorsport
ISLAMABAD: When Arshia Akhtar first stepped onto a karting track in Riyadh as a child, she had no idea it would lead her to professional racing.
Nearly two decades later, she has become the first Pakistani woman to receive a professional license from the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) — motorsport’s global governing body — a milestone that places her among the few women competing internationally in formula racing.
Born in Lahore and raised in Saudi Arabia, Akhtar moved to the United States in 2017, where she now works full-time in clinical research while pursuing her motorsport ambitions.
“My mom and my sister, they don’t even have a driver’s license,” she told Arab News in an online interview from Texas. “It has always been my dad and I who are more sports-oriented.”
