Sooraya Qadir (aka Dust) is a superheroine appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character usually appears in X-Men-related comic books. Sooraya is a mutant with the ability to transform her body into a pliable cloud of dust.
Backstory
Dust is a mutant from Afghanistan. She was taken into captivity by slave traders who planned to sell her off as a mutant slave. When her captors attempted to remove her headdress, she lashed out at them, turning into her dust form and stripping flesh from their bodies. It was Fantomex who initially discovered her to rescue her.
Wolverine had also been out to locate her, and assisted in killing the remainder of her would-be captors and getting her to the safety of the X-Corporation headquarters in Mumbai. While Wolverine was sleeping and allowing himself to heal, she turned into her dust form, hiding all around the room. Jean Grey recognized telepathically that she was there and attempted to comfort her, but she would only say one thing: Turaab (meaning "Dust").
She was placed in Xorn's Special Class. When Xorn asked her to join his new group and she refused, he controlled her dust form and forced her to destroy Cerebra. With other students such as the Stepford Cuckoos, Dust went into hiding and helped Cyclops and Fantomex plan to take down the crazy Magneto/Xorn.
History
While at the Xavier Institute, she befriended and joined the Hellions. Instead of wearing a traditional X-Uniform, she decided to keep her traditional clothing, an abaya and a niqab veil. While also at the Institute, Dust was placed in a room with Surge. Surge and Dust didn't become friends, as the two had very different ideas about how to dress.
During the first field training, Dust used her powers to mask the maze from the New Mutants' view. When the Hellions and Wind Dancer (now Renascence) went to break Kevin Ford out of jail, Dust went because she was obliged to do so as a member of the team and because Julian had said so.
But when they got there, the New Mutants managed to talk Wind Dancer around, so the Hellions (without Icarus) and the New Mutants (with Icarus) battle. Firstly, Dust battled Surge, but Prodigy instructed Surge to switch places with Wind Dancer, and Wind Dancer used her powers to send Dust out of the battle. It was later revealed that she was flung back to the Institute, where her niqab veil and abaya had lost, so she was naked. But, Icarus asked Surge to take her another, as only a girl could see her without her clothes. Dust also began to develop a good relationship with Icarus during this time. Dust also attended Northstar's funeral after he was killed by Wolverine. Afterwards, Icarus asks Dust to the dance, but she turns him down because she doesn't feel comfortable with the idea of a dance. Dust battles the Blobwith the others.
Childhood's End
Dust was one of 27 students of the Institute who retained their mutant powers after M-Day.
After the chaos in the Mansion and a brief argument between Hellion and Surge, Dust with the other Hellions, followed the New Mutants to the Danger Cave, a cave that performs similar tasks as the Danger Room although only with previous X-Missions, built by Prodigy. After some messing around with the Danger Cave, Dust asks whether they could stop, and they all leave. In this arc, it is revealed that Surge had moved out of her and Dust's room, so Dust is given a new room mate, X-23. Later, Emma Frost organizes a battle between the remaining powered students, with the winners being drafted into the New X-Men team. Dust battles Indra, and then she is seen again at the end of the battle as one of the winners, and she is drafted into the New X-Men team.
Crusade
In the first issue of this arc, Dust and the other New X-Men have a training exercise where they have to take down Colossus, but when she is instructed to attack by Hellion (who is not the leader of the team), she is quickly taken out when Colossus lifts up a water pipe from below and sprays her with it. During this arc, Reverend William Stryker targeted the Xavier Institute, because he believed that God had sent the Decimation and it was his job to kill the rest of the mutants. Icarus had his wings amputated by Stryker, because he believed that if he gave up his wings, his friends would be saved. Icarus went to see Stryker again, but before he did, he gave a note to Dust, asking her to come to this address. X-23 said that it was a trap, but Dust didn't believe her. At the address, and the Purifiers see Dust arriving and they open fire. Stryker allows Icarus to see this, and then Stryker kills him (this is all because in Nimrod's data banks, Dust killed all the Purifiers as the invaded the Institute). But Dust wasn't shot, but knocked out and left on her and X-23's bathroom floor by X-23. X-23 took her niqab and abaya and left her just in her underwear. Dust went outside to find Mercury and Rockslide battling Purifiers, and after Rockslide realised that Dust wasn't wearing her abaya and niqab and that he couldn't look at her, she said "Turaab" and turned to Dust, and ripped the skin off the Purifiers.
Nimrod
Dust, together with X-23, Cyclops and the Stepford Cuckoos, in Cerebra as they searched for Jay. Dust was very distraught, blaming herself for his disappearance (although he was actually killed). However, X-23 told her she would have been killed if she had followed him. When the New X-Men eavesdropped on Cyclops and Ms. Marvel, it was revealed that Icarus is dead, and Dust began to cry. Later, they tried to put the clues together to figure out who the new enemy was, and David figured out it's Nimrod.
The New X-Men headed to Texas to save Forge. After the Blackbird they were in was crashed by Nimrod, the team entered Eagle Plaza. After a brief battle with several robots, an explosion was set off. Luckily, the group and Forge were saved by Hellion, but he got a concussion, and Dust cradled him in her arms. When Nimrod got closer, she battled him for a while along various others of the team, but was then dispatched by a beam he fired.
When Lucinda Guthrie came to collect Icarus's body, Dust ran to her and broke down in front of her in tears.
Mercury Falling
Dust is seen in this arc talking to Emma Frost, where Emma told Dust that she still had no luck finding Dust's mother. She is then seen asking Pixie about X-23 and Hellion, where she learnt that X-23 came out of the old Morlock Sewer entrance all bloody, and then there was a big noise, and no one had seen them since.
Later outside, Dust prepared to leave to look for her teammates along with Rockslideand Surge, but they were all called inside. She then battled.
Quest For Magik
Dust is first seen in this arc praying in her room, but was then pulled into Limbowith the other students. In Limbo, she was held captive together with Mercury and Prodigy. After realizing that she was in hell and out of Allah's sight, she and the other two were interrogated by Belasco, who asked about Illyana Rasputin. Belasco was able to sense that the three of them had been near her, but this was only true in the House of M reality, which none of them remembered.
Belasco ripped out Prodigy's heart, and as Mercury and Dust watched in shock, they were freed from their restraints by X-23 who told them to fight. She was quickly disposed of by Belasco, but Mercury and Dust fought back hard, and luckily for them, their mutant forms were resistant to magic. The two managed to hold Belasco off until he was stopped.
Dust's shoulder was dislocated during the battle with Belasco, but it was cured by Beast in the medical bay of the Institute. She was in quite a bit of pain, but didn't want to cause any fuss by asking someone to help. There, Pixie asked why she still wore her burqa even after everyone had seen her without it. Nezhno then answered her question, correcting Pixie by telling her that it wasn't a burqa but rather an abaya with a niqab veil, and asked Pixie to respect Dust by learning more about her.
When Surge went around asking about what happened to David in Limbo, Dust told her that he broke a rib, but Elixir healed him. We then see Matthew Risman leading Predator X to Dust, because she severely disfigured his face when she attacked the Purifiers at the mansion.
Personality and relationships
Sooraya is depicted as a quiet and reserved individual, initially struggling to adapt to life at the Xavier Institute, particularly with her outspoken roommate Noriko. Despite these initial difficulties, Sooraya demonstrates unwavering faith in her religion, choosing to wear a hijab instead of the standard training uniform. Throughout her time at the institute, Sooraya develops friendships with other students like Icarus, though her religious beliefs occasionally create conflict with other characters.
Appearance
In line with Sooraya's character as a traditional Muslim, she chooses to don a loose-fitting black dress, with a niqab covering her face. Sooraya explains to her mother that she dresses this way because of the modesty it affords her from men. Her mother is happy that she lives somewhere where she is able to make those choices
Powers and abilities
Dust is a transmorph, able to transform herself into an explosive cloud of sand-like silicon particles and maintain control of her sand form. She can reform her normal body at will or maintain an aerial based sand form in the shape of her human body. Her sandstorm form is resistant to most forms of injury. The form makes her hard to detect telepathically, according to Jean Grey and Professor X. She is also resistant to magic. She can use the form to attack, for instance, scouring the flesh from her enemies' bones like a sandstorm as well as enter people's lungs and scouring them from the inside.
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