Maria Toorpakai, Pakistan’s #1 female squash player, is a savant—a self-taught athlete from the tribal areas of Pakistan who passed as a boy to play sports under one of the most oppressive & violent regimes on the planet.
After enduring years of adversity and struggling in a world that would not accept her, Maria rose to prominence as the best female athlete in Pakistan (and the #41 ranked squash player in the world). Her story, published under the title “A DIFFERENT KIND OF DAUGHTER: The Girl Who Hid from the Taliban in Plain Sight” is also her message to women the world over.
The book is amazing. Kirkus has called the Maria “a courageous young woman standing up to one of the world’s most oppressive theocracies” and Booklist praises her for “illuminat[ing] the struggles of living under the threat of violence simply because she dreamed of becoming her own champion.”
