As Arab American Heritage Month is celebrated, one Northern California artist is keeping the centuries-old tradition of Islamic calligraphy alive, one carefully measured stroke at a time.

Sehar Shahzad is a student calligrapher. Before starting any project, Shahzad said “one of the first things that calligraphers learn is how to cut their pens.” 

Her tools must be in pristine condition.

“Your instruments are just as important as anything else in this art,” she said.

Shahzad said that as a young girl growing up in Toronto, she took up Islamic calligraphy while reflecting on her religion.

“It’s not like I’d never seen it before, but it was my first time kind of trying it,” she said. “And there’s no other way to say it except that I just fell in love with it.”

Now married with three children, Islamic calligraphy is very much part of her life.

“I remember thinking that this isn’t something that I just want to learn for fun,” she said. “I really want to be able to master it.”

Shahzad said that every angle and curve follows strict geometric rules and is measured with dots.

“For example, this letter here was just a little bit too long, so we use these nuqtas to help us guide and understand how long that letter should be,” she said.

Like the Arabic language, Islamic calligraphy is read from right to left. Its bold simplicity requires precision and a deep understanding of proportion.

“When you’re creating a composition, it’s not only about the letter itself,” Shahzad said. “It’s about composition as a whole and making sure that everything balances together.”

Even though she’s still mastering her form, Shahzad’s work is featured in the prayer room of a Muslim cemetery in Napa and in the domes of mosques in San Jose, Hayward, and San Francisco.

Still, she considers her work on paper the most special.

“A form of meditation, a form of worship, requires focus, requires discipline, really brings me to a different space,” Shahzad said. “And I think that’s what I love most.”

Proving that in this fast-paced world, this millennia-long tradition is far from disappearing.

Shahzad’s work will be featured at the upcoming Light Upon Light art exhibit at the Tarbiya Institute in Roseville from April 24-26.

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday highlighted what he called historic progress in the state’s fight against gun violence.

“California has achieved something historic with the lowest rates of firearm deaths, suicides and homicides on record,” he said during a press conference.

According to Bonta, in 2024, California saw the lowest numbers of firearm-related deaths since 1968. That also drove the state’s overall homicide rate to its lowest level on record in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, Bonta’s office said.

However, Bonta warned lawmakers that those gains could be at risk without continued investment.

“This progress is fragile,” he said. “It was driven in part by significant investments that are now declining or disappearing, and without continued and increased investment, we risk losing it.”

Bonta urged policymakers to continue advancing gun violence prevention efforts and education initiatives.

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A Southern California state senator has proposed a new law that would prevent euthanasia in the state’s wildlife just a month after a mother bear was put down for swiping at a woman in Monrovia, feet away from where her two cubs were located. 

The legislation, SB 1135, which was introduced by Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas), calls for the establishment of a state program that promotes the coexistence with wildlife and codifies a wolf-livestock coexistence and compensation program. The move comes two years after funding for a similar wildlife coexistence program expired. 

“We can and must responsibly support people and wild animals to exist in a California where we are all under growing pressures and cumulative threats like extreme heat, frequent drought and intense wildfires that animals respond to by moving in search of resources to survive,” Sen. Blakespear said in a statement. “That means investing in science-based, situation-specific, proactive strategies to minimize negative interactions and prevent escalation to conflicts that pose risks for people and animals. SB 1135 proposes a program to better protect people, wildlife and communities.”

The proposed coexistence program, which would be allocated nearly $50 million through the state’s 2026-27 budget, would build on the previous version, which deployed trained regional human-wildlife conflict staff around the state. The absence was noted by CDFW leaders during a state Assembly meeting in January, according to Blakespear. 

“Over the last five years, wildlife incident reports logged by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) increased by 31 percent and calls, emails and field contacts rose by 58 percent,” Blakespear’s proposal says. 

She noted the recent headline across the state, including “Blondie,” the Monrovia mother bear who was captured and put down by wildlife officials in March after it swiped at a woman near the home it was living under with its two cubs. 

The home in question belongs to Richard Franco. He, along with many other Monrovia residents, has documented his encounters with bears over the years, even setting up a system of trail cameras to track the bears’ movements. 

“Getting to know her, you could see what a devoted mother she was,” Franco said. “She was always building a nest.”

Read more: Orphaned bear cubs taken to San Diego for care after mom is euthanized for attacking people

Franco and many of his neighbors were angered upon learning that CDFW officials had euthanized Blondie after her capture, which they credited to the fact that she had swiped at the woman days earlier and another person in 2025.

“Forcing them out, and then euthanizing the mom was just traumatic for us,” said one Monrovia couple. “It was just tragic, and there was no need for it; it was completely unnecessary.”

Situations like this are what caught Blakespear’s attention, leading to her proposal last week. 

“It is really my desire to make sure that wild places stay wild, and not be having to resort to lethal measures like killing bears or killing wolves,” Blakespear said, while speaking with CBS LA. “We need to have a program that is up and going so we can be educating people.”

The program calls for focus on public education, maintaining a statewide incident reporting system and deploying devices like barriers, noise and light machines and other technology that would deter predators from places where they shouldn’t be. 

SB 1135 passed on a 5-1 vote and will now be considered by the Senate Appropriations Committee.