Regexp with unicode problem

demis has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I am reading data from an excel file(ParseExcel0.32) in a local language.What I need to do is say:

if ($field=~/local_alphabet_string_that_I_copy_from_the_excel_cell_int
+o_the_perl_script/){$field=...;}
[download]

any idea how to do it? It does not seem to work if I just copy the string in the regexp. I could convert to csv, but I wonder if there is a way to get the regexp to work as it stands(or with some modification)

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