Podcast appearances and mentions of maria toorpakai

Maria grew up in Taliban headquarter. That's how she calls the tribal area of Waziristan where she was raised. Today she is a squash player in the international arena and has a foundation to encourage Pakistani girls to also be brave. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The Taliban threatened to kill her and her family. So she put herself under a voluntary quarantine for three years. She just hardly ever left the house. The first time she sensed that something was wrong with the way girls were treated in Waziristan was when she was four years old. That's why she burned all her dresses and cut off her hair. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ We talk about freedom, extremism and education. About Islam and Islamism. Maria is telling the story of her childhood and what made her burn her dresses as a kid. Also how she made it through such a long time in quarantine and what she thinks about the majority of schools today: nothing. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Maria's Utopia is a world where everybody is free. Also from the inside. No prejudices, no extremism. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Maria Toorpakai's Foundation: https://www.mariatoorpakai.org/ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Music: Robert Pilgram http://robertpilgram.com/ Illustration: Christine Anas Textedit: Fiona Weber-Steinhaus https://www.fionaws.com/

In Waziristan, girls don’t play sports. They’re not allowed. But hostility and discrimination didn’t stop Maria Toorpakai from becoming one of the world’s top-ranked squash players. She joins our podcast to discuss how sports offer a platform for advancing gender equality and promoting social change.

Maria Toorpakai is a Pakistani squash player who had the dream to become an athlete as a young girl. Unfortunately, the culture, the society and the Taliban don’t allow girls to be actively involved in sports in Pakistan – and especially not in remote tribal areas like Maria’s home, South Waziristan. However, Maria never gave up fighting for what was important to her, and luckily she had a father who was a strong advocate for equal rights of men and women, and supported Maria in her dream to become an athlete. At the age of 4 years, Maria burned all her girls clothes and lived disguised as a boy, which made it possible for her to be the athlete she always wanted to be. After discovering squash and the joy she experienced on a squash court her true identity was revealed and she received death threats from different groups, including the Taliban. Although it wasn’t safe for her to leave the family’s house she kept training inside her bedroom. She sent thousands of emails to people around the world, asking for help. Finally, Jonathon Power, former world #1 in squash, offered her to come to Toronto/Canada. Today, Maria Toorpakai lives and trains in Toronto, still competing for the Pakistan. In this episode, Maria talks about her story and her experiences as a girl in an extreme patriarchal society, about being oppressed, about receiving death threats and about never giving up. She talks about the mindset she developed on her journey in life in squash and sport, about equality, human rights and her book A different kind of daughter. We also talked about the Maria Toorpakai foundation is dedicated to building peaceful communities and gender equity by investing in education, sports and healthcare programs for young girls and boys in remote regions of the world, particularly the Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

Welcome to the Women Sports Film Podcast! On this first episode, we interview Erin Heidenreich, director of The War to Be Her, a documentary about Maria Toorpakai, a squash player from Pakistan who defies the Taliban in order to become one of Pakistan's best squash players.

Pakistani squash player Maria Toorpakai Wazir tells her story dressing as a boy to play squash, gender differences, gender equity, being strong, confident, education, Hollywood, value of sport and more on Hear Her Sports female athlete podcast.

Too often in this country, we get complacent with what we have, or don't have. It's so easy to take for granted what freedoms we are afforded in the GREATEST country on Earth. I get the privilege to interview the amazing MARIA TOORPAKAI, Pakistan's #1 women's squash player. Raised as a boy for fear of death, she eventually left Pakistan to pursue her dream...but at what price? Her father, captured and tortured for speaking out for women's rights, eventually escaped and moved the family to a 'safer' place, while still receiving death threats and narrowly escaping an assassination attempt-all so his daughter could pursue her passion. Hear the harrowing story of a young girl, afraid to cross the street some days, survived the horrible treatment in her homeland, now on the cusp of becoming a World Champion!! http://mariatoorpakai.org/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/les-norman/support

Not even Taliban death threats could stop our guest Maria Toorpakai from fulfilling her destiny. Growing up in the conservative region of Waziristan where women have zero rights, Maria Toorpakai, age 4, burned all her dresses. Maria's father and brothers helped hide her female identity so she could play sports and roam freely as a boy. Now an internationally ranked squash player, Maria Toorpakai uses her platform to advocate women's rights. In her new memoir, "A Different Kind of Daughter: The Girl Who Hid from the Taliban in Plain Sight," Toorpakai shares, "Courage in Pakistan is often a fatal virtue." Still her courageous parents defied societal expectations and encouraged each of their children to live authentically, even if that meant putting their lives at risk. And Maria's mother, a school principal, continues to travel to dangerous territories in order to build schools for girls. You don't want to miss this provocative and empowering "Atomic Moms" discussion about having the courage to allow our children to be their truest selves. Subscribe and leave a review on iTunes! For program notes go to www.atomicmoms.com

Maria Toorpakai grew up in the traditional tribal region of Waziristan, and from an early age decided she would rather play with the boys than stay inside with the girls. So she burned her 'girly' clothes and cut her hair short so she could run and jump and wrestle outside. When her family moved to Peshawar Maria picked up a squash racket for the first time, and by the age of 16 was Pakistan's number one player. Her success led to death threats however, and she was forced into hiding and playing only in her bedroom. Maria now lives and trains in Canada. Her book A Different Kind of Daughter: The Girl Who Hid From the Taliban in Plain Sight (with Katharine Holstein) is out now. Malaysia's Nicol David has dominated women's squash since 2005. She was the World No 1 woman player for an unprecedented 9 years. Nicol says her greatest win was her first world title when she was 22 in Hong Kong, which came as a complete surprise. She started playing squash with her sisters to work out her hyperactivity, and quickly became a junior champion. She says squash is like 'physical chess' - you are always thinking ahead by two or three moves.