But weight lifting tournaments were rare. Bored with lifting weights in a room by herself, Toorpakai took up squash, Pakistan’s second biggest sport after cricket. But the director of an academy in Peshawar requested Toorpakai’s birth certificate as part of the admissions process. He was pleased to see that a girl had come to play the sport and gave her a racquet signed by Jonathan Power, a former world champion who would later become Toorpakai’s coach.

While she was elated at the chance to play, she struggled with her secret being revealed.

“When people came to know about me that I am a girl, then they treated me differently,” she told Refinery29. “What is wrong with this society, these people?”

Still, she excelled on the court. From 12 to 16 years old, she spent hours on the courts. In 2007, she turned professional. In that same year, then-President Pervez Musharraf honored her, attracting national coverage, but also flagging her to the Taliban. The fundamentalist group began to target her and her family. Security posts were set up by the Peshawar squash facilities, and by her home.

Toorpakai and her family were “well aware of the situation, the gravity of it.” The fear was exhausting, and the teenager tried to focus on her squash, but she was forced to practice for years in her room at home — or at night on an unused squash court.

Her conscience weighed on her as she worried that she could be putting others’ lives in danger. “Those kids, they come to play squash and they just want to play.” She began sending appeals around the world, emailing schools and clubs hoping one would offer her the chance to train and play.

After four years with little response, Power, the former world champion, invited her to train in Canada. She accepted.