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Growing up in an ultra-conservative Taliban stronghold in northwest Pakistan, squash star Maria Toorpakai Wazir realized early in life she wanted only one thing: To be equal.

“Where I come from, girls are not allowed to play sports,” said the 26-year-old from a comfortable chair at the Calgary Winter Club, where she competed this week in the Calgary CFO Consulting Services Pro-Am.

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“We weren’t allowed to go outside and play like the boys. I wanted to play freely, so I took all my girlie dresses and burned them.”

She cut her hair short, put on her brothers’ clothes and headed outside to start enjoying some of the freedoms boys had.

She wasn’t even seven years old.

“I just wanted to be free, and in my eyes the only way to freedom was in boys’ clothes.”

Despite the risks involved, her liberal father fully support her bold stance, well aware of the feisty nature of his child, who he took to calling Genghis Khan after the Mongolian emperor.