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Marta Hepler Drahos

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May 16, 2011

Marta Hepler Drahos: Young life shaken

By MARTA HEPLER DRAHOS mdrahos@record-eagle.com

Many were jubilant when U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in the clandestine raid in Pakistan.

Me? I worried about how the attack -- conducted without the knowledge or assistance of the Pakistani government -- would impact our former Pakistani exchange student and her dream of returning to America.

She was 15 when she came to northern Michigan through a scholarship program created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to foster cultural understanding between the U.S. and Muslim countries. She was strong in her faith, yet eager to observe and experience this America for herself -- even if it meant temporarily breaking taboos like attending mixed-gender classes or walking through the mall unaccompanied by a close male relative.

She didn't make friends easily because of the head scarf that somehow kept kids her age from approaching her. But the adults in our circle welcomed her enthusiastically, curious to learn more about her and her culture.

After the year was up she returned home and began the difficult task of educating those who advanced their prejudices about Americans. She's tiny but mighty, and she's not afraid to tell people what she knows: That as vast as the cultural divide is between our countries, we Westerners aren't the infidels religious extremists would lead some to believe. Americans love their God, they love their families, they love their work, they love their freedom.

Even as the hunt for bin Laden intensified and tensions between our countries escalated, she made plans to come back to northern Michigan for college. She studied hard, took tests, worked to earn money and then applied and was accepted at Northwestern Michigan College as part of her goal of exploring space someday. She was devastated when her student visa request was denied.

Despite the setback, she waited out a term, then applied again, making the nearly three-hour trek from her home in Lahore to Islamabad -- near where bin Laden ultimately was discovered -- for another visa interview. By then the U.S. and Pakistan were almost at blows over Washington's insistence that the Pakistani government and its security bodies were providing sanctuary and other support to militant groups allied with al-Qaida. Student visa denied again.

American friends wrote letters on her behalf, offered to sponsor her, appealed to their congressmen.

Then, just days before a third visa interview, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin attempted to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square, setting off an international debate and sending our former exchange student into a tailspin.

Now she no longer cries when we talk on the phone because we no longer talk about her coming. The truth is that she may never be able to visit the U.S. again, and we both know it.

She's a 19-year-old kid caught between the politics of our two countries. And every time another event takes place, like the killing of bin Laden in Pakistani territory, it helps to seal her fate.

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