Mahdi

Mr Durma's ancestors were related to the Mahdi, a 19th Century leader who created the foundations of the Sudanese state and an influential religious movement.

For months, Nimisha's relatives and supporters have been trying to do this by raising diyah, or blood money, to be paid to Mahdi's family, and negotiations have been going on.

Mahdi Manji, director of public policy at the Inner City Law Center, said that by not allowing affordable housing in the single-family-home areas, the rezoning proposal is “playing at the edges” of integrating communities.

“For every wise player, there comes a moment when the cost benefit calculation shifts and all strategies are reset,” said Mahdi Mohammadi, the chief adviser to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament.

Mohammed Mahdi, who was among hundreds of Palestinians who returned to the area, described a scene of “total destruction.”