Professional Squash Player

From a young age I was always drawn to sports. When I was 15 years old my school principal was impressed by my achievements in sports, and she told my mother to take me to the sports complex for training. When I was first introduced to squash, I loved it instantly and started practicing regularly. The coaches encouraged me to participate in an international tournament just two months after I started playing. I loved that squash was an individual sport with a focus on stamina. I was impressed by famous players like Jahangir Khan, but I noticed that there weren’t many women in Pakistan who had reached the same titles that men had, so I decided I wanted to become the best female player from Pakistan.

My mother bought me my first racquet, and shoes. I started practicing with the National Association Team. My first tournament was international tournament, and I lost my game in first round, but I was excited to see my picture printed in the national newspaper the next day, for being an upcoming woman player. My parents were afraid because it was not safe for girls to be famous because the extremist groups in the country did not value girls succeeding in anything.

My mother always went with me because it was unsafe to go alone, and she would stay for the full two or three hours that I practiced. My father who was living in the US listened to scary stories every day and asked me to wear a burqa to cover up my identity, and told me to change my routes while going to the sports complex to train. There was no security at the main gate, of the sports complex and it got very dark in the evenings which made it unsafe for girls especially. However, my mom and sister supported me by coming with me to practice.

I wanted to participate in tournaments but because of the bomb strikes, no tournaments were being hosted nearby because people were afraid to come to Karachi. Since tournaments were not being held nearby, I was forced to travel internationally just to improve my ranking. Without any funds or sponsors supporting me, my father covered the costs of my travel, and continued to support me in fulfilling my dreams. I kept playing more tournaments and won my state championship for the first time. There was more coverage in the news and people started to know me. I started training twice a day to improve faster and become a top player. I went on to be an 8 time state champion, Jordan Junior Champion, Gold Medallist in the Pakistani National Olympics, and my highest world rank was 144.