Peace Brought on By Father

I read the article, Teen Athlete Fled Taliban Stronghold to Pursue Dream. I found that this article, summed up into a few words is: motivating. Inspiring. Emotion- filled. And most of all, Heartfelt. It is about a girl, named Maria Toor Pakay, who is 18. She lived in a small village in South Waziristan. There, suicide attacks are just their way of life, and it happens all the time. So, as you can imagine, it’s very dangerous there. They “punish girls who attend school- let alone play sports.” I can’t even imagine living in a place where bombs are going off- and definitely not being able to go to school, or play sports. “They have no future,” she says. She was not like most of the girls. She had a buzz cut, and played with the boys. “If someone argued with me, I used to beat them up,” she said. Her father knew from a very early age that Maria was different. Someone special. “I didn’t want her talent to go to waste. If I would’ve kept her in the village, all she could do was housekeeping.” In the game of Squash, players hit a ball to the front wall of a court, until one misses. This barely ever happened to Maria. She is an excellent player. Wazir, her father, packed up the family’s bags, and headed off to Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province. Here, Maria won the Under 13 Championship, then the Under 15, then the Under 17 Championship! Today, Maria has gone pro, being the 91st ranked in the world! “her fathers sacrifice… made her success possible.” Maria’s father says, “I sacrificed because I want to promote a message of peace. If the tribal people picked up a racquet instead of a gun, there would be peace.” So, this story is not just about a strong, independent young woman who overcame violence and sexism, but it is also about her miraculous father, who helped her achieve her dream.
As I stated before, this article is captivating, and most definitely motivating… but, there is a serious issue at hand. Maria’s father was not a common one, and not many of the other girls’ fathers would do what he did. Even if the other girls was as great as Maria. What we have here is a serious case of sexism, and violence. What do we do about this? I believe that we should try to help as much as possible. But how do we do it? It’s a VERY dangerous place, and I most definitely would NOT feel safe going there, especially as a young girl. Would it even help to go there? It’s more than likely that violence would come out of us going there. We have to make a choice here. Our safety, or the girls of South Waziristan’s safety?