Maria Toorpakai Wazir

PLAYING HER WAY TO EQUALITY

Written and Illustrated By: Margaret Robinette

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WHERE OUR STORY BEGINS

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Pakistan | History, Population, Religion, & Prime Minister

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When you go outside, what kind of games do you play? Do you play hide and go seek, tag, badminton, or soccer? Do you play make-believe where you save the lost puppy or go into battle to defeat the evil monsters? Now, imagine your favorite game and not being able to enjoy it, simply because you were born a girl. How does that make you feel?

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This is where our story begins, with a young Maria Toorpakai Wazir - a girl who wanted nothing more than to play outside. Little did Maria know that her dream would change her life and others.

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Maria was born on November 22, 1990, in a small village within Waziristan, Pakistan. In Waziristan, there are tribal laws that end up burdening the people that live there, specifically the girls.

The girls in the village are meant to simply listen to the men in society, no questions asked. They are not allowed to go outside and play while the boys are allowed to run around in the sun and enjoy their time. Instead, the girls are raised to hide away from the world and take care of the home. Luckily for Maria, the family she was born into pushed back against these kinds of beliefs.

Maria's family was different than other families from where she lived because each family member was treated as an equal in her house. Her parents believed that just because Maria was born a girl, it didn't mean that she was any less of a person. Instead, they empowered young Maria to be her true self despite all of the laws in Waziristan saying otherwise.

Maria's true self took form at the young age of four years old. One day, when Maria was looking out of her window and saw a bunch of boys playing in a field, something completely overtook her. As she watched them run around in the dirt, shouting to one another with glee, she knew that as a girl, her society did not allow her to join them. So, instead of accepting this, little Maria decided to change her fate.

Maria gathered up all of her dresses, hair ribbons, and anything else that made her identifiable as a girl and set them on fire. She burned the items that kept her from playing outside, and in an even more drastic move, Maria took the last step to separating herself from looking like a girl. She took a knife, cut off her long hair, and threw it into the fire. Maria was free from the chains of society that told her girls were not allowed to play outside.

With the support of her family, Maria no longer used her feminine name. To the world, she was now Genghis Khan, a young boy who loved nothing more than to run around outside, let the sun beat down on their skin, and simply be free.

Genghis Khan

Even though the world now saw Maria as Genghis Khan, she was still her father's daughter, and to remind herself of this, she would whisper to herself her three birth names, Maria Toorpakai Wazir. She never wanted to forget who she really was.

Maria Toorpakai Wazir

As time went on, Genghis Khan opened up a whole new world for Maria. At the age of ten, Maria and her family moved to Peshawar, and Maria learned very quickly that she would have to prove herself as Genghis Khan if she was going to be able to stick with the boys. Soon, she was confronted with fight after fight with the boys in the neighborhood. They were determined to take down the new kid on the block, and yet, they kept losing to Maria. More fights occurred, until one day, Maria's father had enough and took her to a gym where she was identified as Genghis Khan, a twelve-year-old boy. Almost immediately, she started to weightlift alongside her brother, Taimur.