Man, 30, Is Charged In Woman's SlayingVideo report HERE.
By Michael Laris
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, July 5, 2008; B03
The body of a 25-year-old woman was found on the sidewalk of a cul-de-sac in the Vienna area early yesterday, and Fairfax County police said they charged a man with abduction and murder in the case.
The victim, Homaira Rahman, lived a half-mile from where she was found, according to police. Detectives think that she and the suspect knew each other, said Officer Don Gotthardt, a Fairfax police spokesman.
Police declined to give details of how Rahman was killed, but they said she suffered trauma to her upper body. An autopsy will be performed.
Gotthardt said the suspect, Ehsan Amin, 30, lives in the 16000 block of Kings Mountain Drive in Woodbridge. However, a man reached by telephone at that address said Amin stays there only occasionally.
Amin was taken to Fairfax's Adult Detention Center, police said.
Tooba Mayel, a close friend of Rahman's family, said Rahman was a generous and sparkling force among loved ones and the broader Afghan community. Her family moved to the area in the 1980s, and she was born in the United States.
"She was a beautiful, tall girl with a smile on her face," Mayel said. "Friends and family always called her sunshine. Our entire community is in grief right now."
Rahman encouraged young Afghan American women to find jobs, Mayel said, and "she was always volunteering to do charity work for the kids in Afghanistan."
Rahman, who lived in the 8700 block of Litwalton Court in the Vienna area, was also known among her friends as "the fashionista," Mayel said. "She wore the best clothes, the newest trends in clothes. She just had a lot of love for that," Mayel said. "She's just a very colorful person. She's always wearing bright colors, happy-go-lucky, very bubbly."
A man out for a walk came across Rahman's body in the 2300 block of Malraux Drive shortly after 6:30 a.m., police said.
"Her arms were very badly scraped up," said Dennis McAuliffe, a neighbor who also saw the scene. Rahman was fully clothed, and a pocketbook lay by her side, he said.
"I don't know if there's a quieter street in Vienna, in Fairfax County, than here," McAuliffe said.
Flags dotted the neighborhood for the Fourth of July.
"People don't drive fast. There are a lot of kids. It's a pretty family-oriented neighborhood," resident Ron Alexander said.
The story got my attention because I know that particular area quite well.
I've set up Google alerts for "Homaira Rahman" and "Ehsan Amin."
Maybe what happened has nothing to do with "honor killing." I admit that I'm suspicious. After all, the story of the murders of Amina and Sarah Said in Texas has gotten next to zero coverage from the national mainstream media.
2 comments:
It wasn't an honor killing.
It was a stranger man who was stalking her and killed her because he wanted to be with her but she declined.
He threatened her with, "if you aren't with me on the 4th of July, you will regret it."
So sad.
There is nothing in this particular account that raises red flags for me, but I want to know more about any relationship between Homaira and the perpetrator and more about the circumstances surrounding her death.
In the U.S., the authorities and the reporters are still quite slow to catch on when a crime is a dishonor killing. So I wouldn't expect it to be part of the early reporting (though I wish it were).
Ellen R. Sheeley, Author
"Reclaiming Honor in Jordan"
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