Couple Awarded $197,500 in Housing Discrimination Lawsuit Won't Tell Story Without More "Gain"

The story of discrimination faced by an Egyptian Muslim couple who once lived in Tempe is a troubling one.The couple, Soha Abdelrahman and her husband, Hany Ibrahim, were paid $197,500 by the owners of the apartment complex they used to live in, thanks to a settlement negotiated by the office...

By Ray Stern

July 28, 2011

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The story of discrimination faced by an Egyptian Muslim couple who once lived in Tempe is a troubling one.

The couple, Soha Abdelrahman and her husband, Hany Ibrahim, were paid $197,500 by the owners of the apartment complex they used to live in, thanks to a settlement negotiated by the office of state Attorney General Tom Horne.

But Abdelrahman says she won't want to talk to New Times about their experience for free.

They're hoping to "be on Oprah" or possibly write a book about their experiences, Abdelrahman says.

"I need to know what I'm going to gain from this, if I told my story," she says after we called to ask her about the ordeal. "I don't want to waste my time without gaining anything."

We wouldn't promise anything except to quote her accurately, but she wouldn't budge.

Perhaps Oprah will offer them a better deal.

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.