Maria Toorpakai is a Pakistani squash player, currently ranked #53 among the world's women players. She was born in South Waziristan, an extremely conservative region of Pakistan along the Afghan border that is often referred to as the ground zero for some of the region's most dangerous extremist groups, including the Pakistani Taliban. As a child, encouraged by her father, Shamsul Qayyum Wazir, an outspoken advocate for women's rights, Maria cut her hair short, dressed like a boy, and called herself "Genghis Khan" in order to play sports with other boys. After her family moved to Peshawar when she was 12, Maria would often accompany her brothers to the squash stadium to watch them play, and it was here that her interest in the sport was ignited. However, in order to join the squash academy, she had to show officials her birth certificate, which revealed her actual gender. Over the next few years, she received so many death threats from self-appointed guardians of public morality that she took to practicing only at night.

Realizing that she was putting her family's safety in great jeopardy by staying in Pakistan, she started writing hundreds of letters to various squash academies abroad. One of them reached former squash champion Jonathan Power, who was so intrigued by her story that he invited her to train at his institution, the Power Squash Academy in Toronto, Canada.

From her base in Toronto, Maria recently communicated with Asia Blog about her childhood in South Waziristan, the popularity of squash in Pakistan, her new life in Toronto, and her future aspirations.