Maria Toorpakai Wazir

Play: When she was young, she loved to play even though the girls are not allowed to go outside the house. That is why when she was dressed like a boy when she was 4 years old and when she was 7 years old people outside her family knew her as a boy. Her father let her join weightlifting and registered her by the name Genghis Khan. On that year she won the championship even if the competition is for boys.  While weightlifting she had the opportunity to observe people playing squash and started to get interested.   Believe : As a requirement for joining they need to pass an original birth certificate, and then people found out about her true identity. She was harassed and bullied by other players. In 2006 she became a professional. She played without a veil and in shorts and it was perceived as “un-Islamic” and it gets the attention of the Taliban and threatened to her and her family. Every day there was a bomb blast every day around her, that is why she decided to lock herself in her room for the safety of the people around her.    Achieve: While in her room she hit the ball to the wall and sending emails to squash clubs and schools but she did not receive any response for more than three years. Until she received a reply from Jonathan Power a former professional squash player that wants her to train to his squash academy in Canada. In 2012 she became Pakistan’s number one female squash player and in 2016 she ranked 56 in the world ranking.