Pakistani athlete raises voice at Asian Games for equality between the genders

Maria Toorpakai, who is competing at the Asian Games in South Korea, has vowed not to stop helping girls in Pakistan overcome discrimination and cultural obstacles even though she has received threats for her work.

INCHEON, South Korea // As a child Maria Toorpakai Wazir had to dress as a boy to be able to play sport in Pakistan and now, as the country’s No 1 women’s squash player, she said there is still too much resistance.

Toorpakai, who is competing at the Asian Games in South Korea, vowed not to stop helping girls in Pakistan overcome discrimination and cultural obstacles even though she has received threats for her work.

“I feel that this is my responsibility,” Toorpakai said after she was beaten by Hong Kong’s Annie Au in the women’s singles on Sunday. “I have to raise my voice for the other girls.”

Toorpakai’s family comes from Waziristan, a lawless tribal area in north-west Pakistan that borders Afghanistan.

Malala Yousafzai, the acclaimed teenage activist for girls’ education, comes from the same region.

As a child in the deeply conservative tribal area, Toorpakai trained and competed as a boy. Girls were forbidden in sport.

Competing without a veil and in shorts was perceived as un-Islamic, and Toorpakai’s family received threats.

Toorpakai at first competed in weightlifting, frequently beating the boys at tournaments. But her father made her switch to squash, where her gender was discovered.

After being required to produce a birth certificate to play squash at the age of 16, the truth about Toorpakai came out and she was bullied by other players.

Toorpakai said Pakistan is changing – but very slowly.

“Always there are people who do support this logic, but there are people who still resist this logic,” she said.

But Pakistan’s No 1 women’s squash player believes the tide cannot be turned back. Toorpakai said her rise in international squash should be an example to other young women in Pakistan.

“I have to give them the same opportunity so that they become champions, too,” she said.

Toorpakai turned professional in 2006 and came third in the World Junior Women’s Championship in 2009.

“This is a beautiful sport, and today I feel that God has given me a chance to come up to such position,” she said.

She vowed to help Pakistan’s women to emerge from the shadows through sport and said it had helped her overcome her tough life in one of the world’s most dangerous regions.

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