**Speakers inform students about Sharia law**

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS – The movement to ban Sharia Law in the United States continues to grow as more than a dozen states are considering legislation to ban this law, including Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma and Alabama.

This was one of the main reasons that Al-Islam Students Association decided to host an event about Islamic Sharia and Democracy, said Fazal Syed, treasurer of AISA.

“It’s a recurring topic in the news and a lot of people have misconceptions of what it is and isn’t,” he said. “We wanted to bring in experts to shed light on the issue and dispel myths that prevail in the media.”

There are six important principles of Sharia law, which are the right to protection of life, family, education, religion, property and human dignity.

“Don’t these principles sound a lot like those espoused in our very own Constitution of the United States?” he said. “The term ‘Sharia law’ is a misnomer, because Sharia is not law, but a set of principles.”

_By Saba Naseem The Arkansas Traveler_

**Iranian journalist speaks on importance of improving human rights**

UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA- In 2009, journalist Roxana Saberi was imprisoned in Iran for more than three months on charges of espionage for the United States. At the Mary Riepma Ross Center, she talked about her experience, what she learned and what others can learn about Iran, human rights, courage and the country’s inhabitants.

Her talk was just one program organized by the human rights and humanitarian affairs program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, which has been reinvigorated by a gift from the Forsythe family.

“There are so many stories about individuals in Iran that we haven’t heard,” Saberi said in an interview before her talk.

Media coverage often focuses on Iran’s troubled relations with much of the world, which Saberi said are valid concerns, but the ordeals of the people on the ground – people like her cell mates, whose names are unknown to the outside world – aren’t heard.

“But they are people pursuing basic freedom,” Saberi said. “And they pay a great price for it. We need to speak out for those who can’t speak out.”

_By Dan Holtmeyer The Daily Nebraskan_

**Hundreds take to the streets against sexual violence**

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY – Enthusiastic whistles and chants filled the night air on Thursday-the sounds of an estimated 800 students who gathered for the 23rd annual Take Back the Night march.

“These are conversations that don’t happen enough, and so the fact that we’re openly saying, ‘We’re standing here, we’re talking about it, speak out,’ is definitely a conversation starter,” said Jennifer Levinson, the co-coordinator of the march. “It’s the only forum like that on campus.”

According to organizers, the goal of the march, which was founded at the height of the feminist movement in 1978, is to acknowledge the problem of sexual violence on college campuses and to create a safe space for survivors.

_By Abby Mitchell The Columbia Spectator_