Getting Naseer here wasn't easy. It involved negotiations with her traditional uncle, Ilyas Hans Sahib, a father figure to Naseer since her father died in 1984. He'd just arranged a marriage for Naseer and was wary of sending her off to America without a family escort. Although she was bubbling with excitement at the prospect of being the first woman from her village to visit the US, she had to let him make the decision. "I never tried to talk to my uncle about coming here," Naseer says.
It took six months of casual meetings between Ms. Chabot and Mr. Sahib to convince him that the value of the journey would outweigh perceived dangers and that Naseer's marriage could be postponed.
Naseer now seems to fit right into the cowboy culture of this land-grant university, often wearing jeans and Western wear (topped by her colorful Muslim scarves). She has impressed her hosts, Lori and Scott Lawson, with a surprising ability to take things in stride in such a foreign culture.
"Fozia is really accepting of other lifestyles," Mrs. Lawson says, noting that once her husband searched online to find the exact direction of Mecca, Naseer showed no discomfort breaking away to pray in their home. Mrs. Lawson says Naseer's a quick study, too. After being shown the basement washing machine, Naseer nonchalantly threw in a load of laundry and turned it on. When they were walking back upstairs, Lawson discovered that Naseer had never seen a washing machine before that.
There have been plenty of other firsts: her first film in a movie theater, first sushi, first trip to a hair salon, and first time riding a horse.
Nothing much seems to shock her. That is, until the first time she ate at the MSU cafeteria: "I just couldn't believe how much food there was, and how much gets thrown away."
Perhaps as influential as any class she's taking (including English composition and computer studies) is the exposure to daily American life.
"Here she is surrounded by strong women," says Chabot. "And that's important because back at home, for CAI, empowering other women will be her No. 1 job." Naseer agrees: "Where I'm from, most women stay home. It's really different, but it's easy for me here."
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