Maria Toorpakay

Early life and education Maria Toorpakai was born on November 22, 1990, in Domel, Bannu, a tribal region in northwest Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan. Her parents are teachers who are committed to women's rights despite the presence of the Taliban in the region. She credits the time her father, Shamsul Qayum Wazir, spent time with hippies visiting the area in his youth for his autodidactic education and supportive attitude toward women's education, which included education of her mother.

As a child, Toorpakai loved to play outside, even though girls are not allowed to go outside the house in the highly conservative tribal area. At age 4, her parents allowed her to dress in boys' clothes and by age 7 she lived as a boy. Before fifth grade, she burnt all her dresses. Her father saw parallels to his tomboy sister, who "just collapsed one day and he thought she died basically of a broken heart, because she wasn't allowed to live the life that she wanted to live." both boys and men. She wrote to clubs, players, and schools and received no response; for three and a half years she "locked herself in a room in [her] house." She said she kept playing squash, hitting balls against her wall, until her neighbors complained one day. "I had to switch the wall. But I kept going". and as of May 2016, she ranked 56th of female squash player in the world.

In 2013, she gave a speech for Tedxteen called 'Squashing Extremism'.

In late August 2007, at almost 17, she lost a five-game semi-final in the POF Women's International Squash Players Association Wah Cantt Open at the Jahangir Khan Squash Complex in Wah Cantt, Pakistan, missing out on a maiden appearance in a WISPA World Tour final; she was nominated as "Young Player of the Year 2007". In 2009, she won third place in the World Junior Women's Squash Championship. Since 2017, she lives in Pakistan alone "but I don't go out to party or drink, because I want to set a standard for the girls back home."

Toorpakai is an advocate for women's rights in Pakistan to "overcome discrimination and cultural obstacles". She has set up a foundation encouraging families to educate girls and allow them to play sports.