A Different Kind of DaughterA Different Kind of Daughter

The incredible story of a girl from tribal Pakistan who risked everything just to play and ended up taking on the Taliban and inspiring the world.


Maria Toorpakai hails from Pakistan's violently oppressive northwest tribal region, where women are forbidden from playing sports and girls rarely leave their homes. But she did, chopping off her hair and passing as a boy in order to play the sports she loved, thus becoming a lightning rod in her country's fierce battle over women's rights.
A Different Kind of Daughter tells of Maria's harrowing journey to play the sport she knew was her destiny, first living as a boy and roaming the violent back alleys of the frontier city of Peshawar, rising to become the number one female squash player in Pakistan. For Maria, squash was not only liberation, though--it was also a death sentence, thrusting her into the national spotlight and the crosshairs of the Taliban, who wanted Maria and her family dead. Maria knew her only chance of survival was to flee the country.
Enter Canadian Jonathon Power, the first North American to earn the title of top squash player in the world, and the only person to heed Maria's plea for help. Recognizing her determination and talent, Jonathon invited Maria to train and compete internationally in Canada. After years of living on the run from the Taliban, Maria packed up and left the only place she had ever known to move halfway across the globe to pursue her dream in Toronto. Now Maria is well on the way to becoming world champion and continues to be a voice for oppressed women everywhere.
A Different Kind of Daughter is about equality, courage, determination, parents' love, and the ability to turn to what is best in us to fight against what is worst in the world.