Azara Nasir

Azara Nasir is a character found in three of the deleted scenes of Season 4.

Season 4 deleted scenes
Agent Nasir was scripted to be a threat-assessment analyst at CTU Los Angeles who was a Muslim. In her first deleted scene, she is forwarded a call from Nabilla Al-Jamil, who is concerned about the activities of her boyfriend, Sabir Ardakani. She prompts Nabilla several times to give more details about Sabir.

In the second scene, Agent Nasir asks Edgar Stiles to examine the printout from Nabilla's lead on her boyfriend's computer chip. Edgar, busy trying to find Marwan, gives her a hard time and only says he will look at the material later. Nasir insists, saying that Nabilla's background checks out and it might be a time sensitive lead, but Edgar brusquely says that she especially shouldn't tell him how to do his job. Nasir is offended. Chloe comes over and diffuses the situation by offering to help, and calls Edgar "an idiot".

Nasir's final deleted scene is her longest. She and Chloe report to Michelle Dessler (and Tony Almeida) about the lead from Nabilla. The two analysts have determined that the data which Nabilla found on Sabir's computer is almost certainly being used on Marwan's stolen nuclear warhead. They discuss Sabir's background, and the likelihood he is in Iowa, and then Michelle convinces Chloe to go with a field team to Los Feliz to decrypt Sabir's computer. They split up, but as Azara walks by, Edgar apologizes for blowing off her lead. She confronts him for being discriminatory because she is Muslim. Edgar admits that the recent death of his mother has made him angry, but she denies this is a good reason to be angry at her simply on account of her faith. She lost her own brother in a terrorist bombing in Riyadh three years ago, which is why she transferred to help stop similar attacks. She asserts that they are on the same team, and Edgar sullenly returns to his desk.

Much of the dialogue from Azara in these deleted scenes were recycled as lines for Chloe in the final cut of the episode. Jon Cassar, in the DVD commentary, noted that the writers always wanted to create a Muslim analyst. However, he ultimately feared that Azara's plot arc might be as poorly received as the "cougars and babies" of prior years, and so had all the scenes cut.