Dust

Sooraya Qadir was born in Afghanistan. As a child she was kidnapped and then sold into slavery. Few years later Sooraya was rescued by Wolverine and Fantomex from a slave-trading ring. She was sent to the Indian X-Corporation base in Mumbai. Sooraya hid herself from the X-Men who were stationed there by turning into sand and spreading herself around the complex. Phoenix sensed Sooraya's presence and telepathically convinced her to reveal herself to everyone present. Sooraya announced her presence by speaking a single word: "Turaab" ("Dust" in Arabic).

Ultimately, Dust was enrolled at the Xavier Institute in Westchester County, New York. Quiet and nervous, she experienced difficulty adapting to her new surroundings - particularly after being placed into Xorn's Special Class, which at the time was becoming increasingly radicalized as Xorn prepared to usurp Xavier. Xorn attempted to indoctrinate Sooraya, but she resisted because he demanded that she renounce her faith and embrace his vision of a world dominated by mutants, which she refused to do. She attempted to alert Xavier about Xorn's plans, but Xorn convinced the Professor that she was out of control, and thus Xavier used his powers to calm her enough so that she could be gathered into a jar. Even after being contained, the Professor could sense her panic, and shortly after, Xorn crippled him and began his destructive campaign to reverse the Earth's magnetic poles.

Some time later, when the school was rebuilt, Sooraya was given the loud and rebellious Surge as a roommate. This turned out to be a disaster, as the two often came to disagreements over the traditional garb which Surge believed to be an affront to women's rights. She was also made a member of the Hellions Training Squad, which seemed an odd choice given leader Julian Keller's penchant for causing trouble. Her discomfort with questioning Keller's authority, even as he prepared the Hellions for an attack against the FBI, further soured relations between her and Surge. By the time the Hellions and the New Mutants battled each other outside Salem Central Station, Surge despised her roommate so badly that Wind Dancer blew Sooraya in her granular form all the way back to campus to prevent Surge from hurting her. This had the unfortunate effect that Sooraya ended up naked when she materialized back at the Academy. Seeing how badly she had humiliated her roommate, Noriko resolved to at least tolerate her until the end of the term. Meanwhile, despite her discomfort around others, Sooraya forged a friendship with Icarus. He asked her to the school dance, but she declined since the idea of the dance made her uncomfortable, but he was not insulted.

fter M-Day, which depowered over 90% of the mutant population, the population of Xavier's student body was reduced to only 27 students. The squad system was dissolved, and the remaining students were merged into one large group. Sooraya was paired as roommates with X-23.

Sooraya became a target of William Stryker's crusade against the Xavier Institute, as he expressed his need to "eliminate the Muslim." Icarus gave her a note, which X-23 told Sooraya not to trust, as Icarus "smells like death". When Icarus visited the church of William Stryker he was shown why Dust was his next target. Nimrod had a vision of an altered future in his memory banks which showed Dust killing all the Purifiers by turning into a sand storm and ripping the flesh from their bones. After entering the church of Reverend Stryker, she was shown being shot down, though it was revealed to be X-23 wearing one of her niqabs. When Stryker's team infiltrated the school, Dust reappeared, surprising Stryker and playing a key role in defeating his Purifiers after all.

With the help of the rest of the New X-Men, Sooraya would later defeat Nimrod at Forge's place. Given the fact that the mission was unsanctioned and caused damages in Dallas, Texas, Sooraya Qadir was red-flagged by the O*N*E.

Sooraya cried with Icarus's mother Lucinda Guthrie when she came to the Institute, and apologized for not being able to do more to save her son. His mother told her that Icarus thought she was a beautiful person (a significant statement, since he had never seen her without her veil on).

Dust was shown praying to Allah before being teleported with the other students to Limbo where she was held captive by Belasco and his demons. X-23 broke free and urged Dust and Mercury to join her in fighting Belasco. Dust was too afraid of the demon that she thought of as the Devil, but when X-23 was seemingly killed, Dust broke free and attacked Belasco, saying that if she was to die, she would make Allah proud.

Regrouping after their failed attack under the leadership of Matthew Risman, the Purifiers were keeping track of the escaped Predator X. Horribly scarred by Dust's attack, Matthew fixated on training Predator X to seek out and kill Sooraya by using abayas and niqabs bearing some recognizable quality of hers (possibly her scent). While being trained to seek out and kill Dust, Predator X sensed the mutant it was originally created to destroy and the Purifiers followed. Dust was crucial in the success of the battle against the Marauders as she helped take out the massively powerful and dangerous Exodus, by entering his body in her sand form and lacerating his lungs.

She then joined the newly-formed team of Young X-Men along with Rockslide, Wolf Cub, Blindfold, as well as new students Ink, Cipher and Graymalkin. However, the team disbanded after it was discovered that the person who formed the team, Cyclops, was really Donald Pierce in disguise. During this time, the false Cyclops ordered the teamto capture the original New Mutants. During their battle with Magma, Dust was turned to glass by Magma using extreme heat, and subsequently shattered. However, Magma was able to heat up all the broken glass, turning it into sand again and Dust returned to her human form unconscious. However, the change caused her cells to die. Dust tried to help the captured Donald Pierce escape in exchange for him finding a cure for her condition, but she subsequently changed her mind and attacked Pierce. It was her last act as she died in front of her friends. Ink tried to use his Caduceus tattoo to heal Dust but she was already dead. Later, Ink used his Phoenix tattoo and was able to resurrect Dust. However, the effort caused Ink to fall into a coma.

Dust became a citizen of the new mutant nation of Krakoa. She later celebrated the return of the X-Men following their victory and death against Mother Mold.