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CALGARY: Pakistani female squash player Maria Toorpakai Wazir was destined for national fame and acclaim. The only problem was, she was a female who hailed from Pakistan's dangerous north-western Waziristan area which was once a stronghold of the local Taliban. However, that did not stop her from pursuing her dream of rising to the challenge and venturing out all the way to Canada to pursue squash.
Life was not easy for someone like Maria Toorpakai Wazir who was born in a society where women do not frequently venture outside and rarely play sports. Hailing from Waziristan, she felt the need to freely venture outside but could not enjoy the same freedom that boys her age usually did. Hence, she resorted to burning her 'girlie' clothes and cut her hair short. She detailed her struggle as a sportswoman in Pakistan to a leading Canadian publication.
"I just wanted to be free," she said, "And in my eyes, the only way to freedom was in boys’ clothes."
Her love affair with squash began on an early age, precisely at 12. She started playing at tournaments and eventually, people discovered (despite her clothing and hairstyle) that she was a girl and did their most to force her to give up on her ambition.
"Eventually, the squash people knew (I was a girl). I had trouble with boys and men because they were uneducated and from village areas. They would stare and pass comments and rather than go for the ball, they would bump into me. I never looked like a girl at that age, so for them, they loved making me feel uncomfortable," she added.
However, Maria was not one to be discouraged or swayed to give up on her ambitions. She waited outside squash clubs with stray cats and dogs even at midnight and reached via buses alone just to get a chance to make it in the world of sports.
Very soon, Maria started winning tournaments in Pakistan and very soon, she started getting noticed. So much so that the then-President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf also awarded her a few medals for her achievements.
"I was winning tournaments, and President (Pervez) Musharraf was very progressive towards women and awarded me a few national awards," she said. "It was in the news and that brought a lot of attention. When (the Taliban) found a girl from their area is playing squash in skirts and no veil, they could not bear it and threatened us," she added.
Maria had turned 16 at that time and was winning national championships when a threatening letter was found taped to her car. That scared the family quite a bit but her liberal father, who was a school teacher, refused to withdraw support for his daughter.
She played squash for three years from then on with the help of the national squash federation, who provided snipers for her safe passage to and from the court. Maria wrote letters across the world for someone to help her continue her passion for squash. It wasn't until she was 19 years old and had won bronze at the world junior women’s championship that she caught the eye of Canadian squash champion Jonathan Power. From then on, the rest is history.
Maria spoke about how she was influenced by Canadians, who were true humanitarians and also revealed her fondness for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
"Justin Trudeau is a very respected person in Pakistan. They have portraits of him on truck art because he’s super kind and has a lot of humanity in him, and that’s what Canada is about," she said.
Maria's family is all about change--from herself to her father who is a liberal school teacher to her sister. Her sister happens to be the youngest parliamentarian in Pakistan and Maria hopes to help her one day in promoting change in the country.
