(Updated at 9:35 a.m.) Hurunnessa Fariad knows what it’s like to be an Afghan refugee.
She fled Afghanistan with her family in the 1980s while the country was under Soviet occupation. While the circumstances were certainly different three decades ago, her emotions upon seeing another exodus in the wake of the Taliban’s recent takeover are comparable to her own experiences.
Approving a new calendar for the coming school year is typically one of the more routine duties administered by the Fairfax County School Board, but this time, it has become another decision complicated by competing priorities and added stakes.
The board will hold a work session at 11 a.m. today (Tuesday) to discuss proposals for the 2021-2022 school year calendar that would add four religious observance holidays not included in the current school calendar: Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 7, 2021), Yom Kippur (Sept. 16, 2021), Diwali (Nov. 4, 2021), and Eid al Fitr (May 3, 2022).
A preliminary hearing for the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s prosecution of murder suspect Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, will be on Friday in Fairfax County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.
Judge Kimberly Daniel will preside over the hearing for the court, according to Rae Ann Stein, who works for the Fairfax County Court Services Administration in records management. The Juvenile and Domestic Relations court has jurisdiction over juvenile matters, including offenses committed by adults against juveniles under the age of 18.
Saving the Environment One Straw at a Time — Americans use 500 million plastic straws a day. Karan Marari, 11, of Reston, is aiming to reduce their use locally with his “no straw request.” He is educating restaurant owners, urging them to change their wait staff’s behaviors and practices that lead to the unsolicited placement of plastic straws in patrons’ drinks. [Reston Connection]
One Month Anniversary of Nabra’s Death — An event is scheduled for Sunday to mark the one-month anniversary Nabra Hassanen’s killing. The goal of the event is to ease people’s pain through prayer. [All Dulles Area Muslim Society]
“It’s still having a shock wave, a ripple effect, however you want to describe it,” said Joshua Salaam, ADAMS Center chaplain, prior to a parent-outreach session Thursday afternoon at Forest Edge Elementary School. “People of all ages, all genders, all ethnicities are so traumatized by it.”
To help work through that trauma, the ADAMS Center along with Fairfax and Loudoun counties have been reaching out into the community to lend strength. Further relief opportunities have been announced for later this month, including listening sessions, youth hangouts and a letter-writing campaign.
“For many of us in Northern Virginia, it’s really during Ramadan where we carve out special places to feel like home,” said Aya Saed, a Harvard Law School student and organizer for the Deeply Rooted Retreat for Black Muslim Youth. “For the crime to have happened in this moment is really quite traumatic to young people who are just starting to creating safe spaces for themselves and forever.”
Saed and other prominent members of the area’s Muslim community appeared on “The Kojo Nnamdi Show” today on WAMU to reflect on the slaying of Nabra Hassanen and discuss its implications on a future generation of Muslim children.
Edwin Roessler, Fairfax County Police Department chief, told media prior to the start of a vigil in Nabra’s honor Wednesday that test results are being awaited before any official statement can be made.
“At this point in time right now, it’s an active investigation,” Roessler said. “We’re pursuing that possibility [that a sexual assault happened], but we have to wait for forensic examination results and the report of autopsy from the medical examiner to confirm whether or not that took place.”
Homicide detectives from the Fairfax County Police Department will continue to lead the investigation into the death of 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen of Reston.
Jurisdictional issues have arisen since the crime, which took place just before 4 a.m. Sunday. Police say Nabra was assaulted and abducted near the intersection of Dranesville Road and Woodson Drive, which is just east of the Fairfax/Loudoun county line. Police say she was then taken to Loudoun County, where she was assaulted again and her body was thrown into a pond.
Services for Nabra Hassanen will take place this afternoon at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (46903 Sugarland Road, Sterling).
Hassanen was killed Sunday after what police say was an extreme road-rage incident on Dranesville Road. She was walking along with friends back toward the ADAMS Center from McDonald’s.
The All Dulles Area Muslim Society says it is “devastated and heartbroken” after a 17-year-old girl was killed near the mosque early Sunday morning.
The teen, who has been identified by family and friends as Nabra Hassanen of Reston, was a “dear daughter, sister and friend,” the ADAMS Center said in a Facebook post late Sunday night.
(This article was updated at 9:05 p.m. with information that the girl is believed to be a South Lakes High School student, and again at 9:45 p.m. after police confirmed the girl was from Reston.)
Police say a body found this afternoon is likely that of a Reston teenager who went missing after an overnight activity in the Herndon area, and a Sterling man is in jail facing a murder charge.
