Institute

Maria Al-Masani was quiet and almost bashful when Bob Heibel first met her in his Mercyhurst College office. She was 17 and living in Erie, one year after fleeing her home country of Yemen, fearful of her abusive, intimidating father who tried to marry her off when she was 14.   Al-Masani and her mother were at Mercyhurst to meet with Heibel, the executive director of the college's Institute for Intelligence Studies. The shy teenager was interested in the international aspect of the program, and in 2002 became a student at the school.   That shy teenager is now a confident 25-year-old woman living in Canada, and embroiled in a beauty pageant controversy that has received media attention from around the world.   Al-Masani, a Sufi Muslim who runs a public-relations company in Ottawa, is one of 62 contestants competing for a chance to represent Canada at the Miss Universe pageant this fall in Las Vegas.   But in June, at the Miss Universe Canada pageant in Toronto, she has decided to wear a sari instead of the traditional bikini during the swimsuit portion of the competition.   The first Yemeni-Canadian ever to participate in the pageant plans to cover up her body for cultural reasons, draped in a garment that will wrap around her shoulders, waist and legs.   The flap has drawn international attention, with Al-Masani's picture and story splashed across newspapers in Canada and TV programs in Italy and Latin America.   "Once you get to know Maria, you see how bright and driven she is," said Heibel, who became her academic adviser at Mercyhurst. "When she studied here, I was amazed at her curiosity about the world around her. You could tell this was someone very special."   Al-Masani said she never thought her decision would garner worldwide attention.   "I think it's amusing, and absurd," she said during a recent telephone interview from Ottawa. "My friends and family think it's all very funny. For me, now I know what overkill means."   Al-Masani, who lived in Erie from 2000 through 2004, said she originally entered the pageant as a joke. Her friends, trying out a new camera, urged her to send a photograph they took of Al-Masani into the competition.   She did, and was selected to be a contestant.   Al-Masani said she'll use her unexpected fame to raise awareness and generate money for two charities she wants to promote: bringing attention to specialized treatments for women at hospitals in Somalia, and alternative dispute resolutions for peace-building.   "If I win (Miss Universe Canada), my charities become the pageant's charities for one year," she said. "I want to win."   Al-Masani's unique journey through Erie and to a world platform began when she was born in communist Russia, then a part of the Soviet Union.   Her family moved to Yemen when she was 3, right around the time her family's connection to Erie formed.   Her mother, Elena Al-Masani, who now runs a language-translation agency in Ottawa, took summer classes in California in the late 1980s, and eventually became good friends with another student, Connie Dusckas, sister of Erie funeral director Nancy Dusckas.   Over the years, Elena and Maria Al-Masani traveled to California and Erie, and the friendships between the Yemeni mother and daughter and the Dusckas sisters grew.   When Maria Al-Masani fled to Erie alone in 2000 at age 16, she lived with Nancy Dusckas in her apartment above her funeral home on Buffalo Road. A year later, Elena Al-Masani, after divorcing her husband in Yemen, came to Erie and moved in.   Maria Al-Masani said she has "great memories" of her four years living in Erie.   She became an honors student at both Mercyhurst Preparatory School and Mercyhurst College. She swam at Presque Isle State Park with friends, cheered on the Erie Otters at hockey games, and loved eating the French onion soup served at Smugglers' Wharf.   "Maria's a lot of fun. And she's got a good heart," said Nancy Dusckas. The two remain close friends, talking monthly on the phone and visiting each other once a year.   "She has an immense passion for education," Dusckas added. "Learning is very important to her."   Maria Al-Masani's favorite spot in Erie was Mercyhurst College, and what she calls a "beautiful, breathtaking campus."   "It's such an intellectually stimulating environment. The arts and sciences, the classical music," she said. "I especially loved it in the spring. There were gorgeous flowers everywhere. Other universities I've seen look so bland."   After two years at Mercyhurst College, she left Erie and moved to Ottawa, studying economic development at Carleton University.   She now runs her own public-relations company -- a profession that will help her manage the potential avalanche of controversy and stardom if she winds up in Las Vegas with a chance to be Miss Universe.   "I'm ready for anything," she said with the same brave approach she uses while tackling bungee-jumping and swimming with sharks, two of her favorite hobbies. "It would be so interesting to meet brilliant and fascinating women from around the world." Link to the story on goerie.com.