”Miss Squash” Pakistan’s number 1 top squash player Maria Toorpakai Wazir will honor ‘’ President’s Cup award 2016’’ on Women Sports Day at US Open in Philadelphia on 12th October 2016
By. Asghar Ali Mubarak
”Miss Squash ”Maria Toorpakai Wazir will honor with the President’s Cup award 2016, the highest individual award at US Squash, it has been announced. The 25-year-old will receive the honors on Women in Sports Day at this year’s US Open in Philadelphia on 12th October 2016.She has been recognized after an incredible story which saw her excel at squash despite much adversity. Born in Waziristan in Pakistan, she was forced to defy Islamic fundamentalists in order to play the sport. Her memoir, “A Different Kind of Daughter”, was published to great acclaim and received coverage around the world. Miss Squash Maria Toorpakai Wazir also spoke at conferences in London and New York, including the United Nations’ Women’s International Forum 2016.Next month, the Toronto International Film Festival is screening the world premiere of an 80-minute documentary about her life. Squash Maria Toorpakai Wazir is currently ranked number 61 in the world and has won seven Professional Squash Association (PSA) events. Her successes include the Liberty Bell Open in Philadelphia and the Southwest Open in Tempe in Arizona.In 2009; she finished third at the World Junior Championships. This year’s US Open will be held at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. Inaugurated in 1966, the President’s Cup is given to men and women who have made “substantial contributions” to the game of squash. Toorpakai is the 45th recipient and the second, after Hashim Khan in 1978, to come from Pakistan. Miss Squash Pakistan’s top squash player Maria Toorpakai Wazir currently ranked number 1 in Pakistan and 61in the world. Maria Toorpakai Wazir was born in South Waziristan, FATA, in a traditional tribal Pashtun Pathan family. She defeated World Number 34, South Africa’s Siyoli Waters, in Bahria Town International Women’s Squash Championship Rawalpindi. First in an interview with this correspondent for a radio Pakistan world service programmed in 2005 Maria Toorpakai Wazir disclosed that she participates in the boy’s weight lifting competition and won the boys category title. Interestingly fact is this that her father as a coach also along with her at Lahore that event. Only her father knows that she is participating in boy’s events. During these days Maria Toorpakai Wazir looks like a beautiful healthy boy. Maria Toorpakai Wazir mostly wears boys dresses jeans, trousers jackets, T shirt, her hair style was bob-cut typically boy’s hair style, nobody can judge that she is girl of age 14.She herself admitted that her boy structure was look like a male person .During the boys weight lifting event even the participants could not relies that a teen age healthy girl is with them as a competitor. This correspondent in 1995 with the help of PC Bhuban G.M.Mr.Ishad B.Anjum arranged first ever female where the legend squash player Jan Sher Khan,Mir Zaman Gull and other were also present .The journey to the top was not easy for Maria Toorpakai Wazir, who had to disguise herself as a boy to be able to play sports in conservative Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA. Talking to ‘’The Daily Mail Islamabad’’ Miss Squash Pakistan’s top squash player Maria Toorpakai Wazir said that ‘’ I grew up as a tomboy. When I was very young, I burnt all my dresses, cut my hair and put on my brother’s clothes. Disguised as a boy, I was able to go outside my home and play with my brother’s friends. My father gave me the nickname ‘Changez Khan’ and I became the family’s fifth son. I would play with slingshots and guns and ride my bike in Dara Adam Khel, where it was unthinkable for a girl to even step out of her home. Miss Squash Maria Toorpakai Wazir further stated that ‘’When I was 12, we moved to Peshawar. There, I became interested in sports and entered weight-lifting competitions under the name Changez Khan.’’ I entered the boys Weightlifting Championship in Lahore, and won, ranking number two in Pakistan for weight-lifting in the junior division’’. Miss Squash Maria Toorpakai Wazir said that Squash is a popular sport in Peshawar so I became interested in squash as well. My father took me to the PAF Squash Academy and introduced me as Changez Khan. But in order to enroll I had to submit my birth certificate and finally the truth came out. However, the director of the academy was pleased to see a girl finally joining the academy. He not only encouraged me but gave me a racquet to play with. This racquet had Jonathan Power’s name inscribed on it. Miss Squash stated that ‘’for the next four years I practiced day and night. By the time I was 16, I had won the bronze medal in the World Juniors Championship and I was ranked third in the world, in the under 19 category. I had also entered the top 80 in the world senior category. Many years later, Jonathan Power would invite me to train under him in Canada Miss Squash Maria Toorpakai Wazir further stated that for a girl in this country, even something as basic as school education is difficult, so for a Pashtun girl to play squash, the road was paved with challenges. ‘’I had to fight to play, fight for my beliefs, fight for the right to just be who I am. I was bullied by boys in the courts when I first started playing because they could not accept being defeated by a girl. With little financial resources, I wore worn out shoes, second hand track suits and played with taped up torn squash balls. When I started playing professionally, I would travel all over the country by myself on public transport ‘she added. Maria Toorpakai Wazir further stated that ‘’later, when my victories won me government recognition, I began receiving threats from the Taliban. I was brave at first but later I just stopped playing. I didn’t want other children at the academy to get hurt in a bomb blast because of me. This was followed by three-and-a-half years of playing in my room and emailing academies around the world for an opportunity to train, without a risk to my life. Except for limited recognition years ago, I have never been encouraged by the government. I have won laurels for my country but the government has never celebrated my achievements. People from the tribal areas are denied rights and only talked about in the context of militancy. When there is a positive story from these areas, it is just forgotten. About a question how can more girls in Pakistan be encouraged to play sports? Miss Squash Pakistan’s top squash player Maria Toorpakai Wazir stated that ‘’we need sports facilities for women but more than infrastructure, we need encouragement. Coaches must train girls like they train boys. Families and parents have a role to play; they must protect the girls in their family but they should also trust them. With their families’ support and trust, women can achieve anything.
