… she’s baaaaack.

Although I suppose she was never quite here to begin with — last time was sort of messy. Regardless, human rights advocate Nonie Darwish will be speaking at Princeton this Wednesday, March 24th at 4:30 in Whig Hall Senate Chamber. The event, titled “Human, Minority, and Women’s Rights Under Islamic Law,” is sponsored by Whig-Clio, The Tory, and The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA)– and it’s bound to spark some campus controversy, given her (short) track record here.

Why the sudden change in heart? According to Whig-Clio:

Our policy on Ms. Darwish’s visit to campus is the same as it was last semester: so long as another campus group is willing to sign off on the legitimacy of Ms. Darwish’s beliefs, Whig-Clio is happy to throw its full institutional support and resources behind her visit. As such, when Tigers for Israel revoked its invitation last semester, Whig-Clio followed suit. Now that the Tory is willing to sponsor the event, Whig-Clio is more than willing to sign on.

In a joint press release, both groups noted that equally controversial speakers have been invited in the past, and that Darwish’s views by no means reflect their own. It’s fair to say that she’ll receive a less-than-warm welcome from many students, but the sponsors hope that those “who disagree with Darwish’s views will participate constructively in the event by asking thoughtful questions during the Q&A period following the lecture.”

We haven’t seen a Whig-Clio event this heated since, well, yeah. This should be interesting.