Maria Toorpakai
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
Growing up as a ‘boy’
Pak champ `turned boy' to evade Taliban, March 17, 2017: The Times of India
When Pakistan's top female squash player Maria Toorpakai was a child, she burnt all her dresses and chopped her hair short. For the next decade, she lived as a boy . Toorpakai grew up in Pakistan's south Waziristan, where the Taliban is deeply entrenched.
At four years old, Toorpakai realised she would have to dress as a boy to play their games. Toorpakai's father, who encouraged her sporting talents, referred to her as his son and called her Genghis Khan.But as Toorpakai's fame grew, her secret came out, prompting death threats from Ta liban, who accused the family of bringing shame. “Where I come from, girls are not allowed to play sport. I broke all the laws,“ said Toorpakai, whose story is told in the film “Girl Unbound“, which was screened at a film festival in London on Wednesday .
At 16, Toorpakai came third in the World Junior Squash Championships and awarded by then President Pervez Musharraf. “I was the first Pashtun girl from Waziristan playing sports at an international level,“ she said.“My family got threats from the Taliban. They said we were tribal people and should be following Islamic rules and making sure that our women stay home.“ The Taliban were also outraged by Toorpakai's short skirts. Toorpakai then locked herself away for three years at home, practising squash against her bedroom wall. She moved to Canada in 2011 when her plea for help was answered by former champion Jonathan Power.
Toorpakai, now 26, credited much of her success to her father, Shamsul Qayyum Wazir. Wazir , a teacher who describes himself as a rebel, said his attitudes were partly shaped by talking to hippies from Europe who visited the region.Toorpakai is setting up the Maria Toorpakai Foundation with the aim of building schools and sports facilities for children in her region.
