Article of the Week Impressions 2/20/15

     There were lots of interesting articles that I learned about this week, but there were two major themes/topics that most of the articles seemed to be about: ISIS and gender equality.

     Out of 15 people I visited, 5 people had articles discussing ISIS's recent activities. I for one, did not choose an article on ISIS, despite the fact that it is one of the most popular topics at the moment because I figured a lot of others would choose articles about ISIS. Though, I feel like it would've benefit me to have chosen an article about ISIS, because I've learned that they truly are becoming more powerful and dangerous! Most of the six articles gave me the basic facts and details about the most recent happenings with ISIS. The terrorist group recently beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians, causing Egypt to airstrike what they believed to be ISIS's central network (hub) in Libya. The airstrikes killed 40-50 people in the surrounding area, but ISIS doesn't feel threatened by these strikes. They still feel powerful, and I learned even more about this from Amelia's article. More than 20,000 foreigners have joined ISIS forces, making ISIS a very large force to reckon with. Despite all of this though, I also learned that people think all of ISIS's plans will end up backfiring, because ISIS isn't the only force that has a lot of people on their side. I learned that 63 countries are willing to come together and fight against them if it becomes necessary, and considering what has just happened, I think that could happen in the near future! ISIS is affecting multiple countries, and they are growing extremely strong, and we can't let it get to a point where they have the chance to get control over the whole world!

     Another topic that seemed to be popular was gender equality, whether the article was about fighting for gender equality, or how other countries and people are against gender equality. Marisa's article focused on the "He for She" campaign, which is a campaign that fights for women to achieve gender equality with men. The campaign is different from just any gender equality campaign though, because it emphasizes the fact that gender inequality isn't just a woman's issue, it's a human rights issue, and that more men need to be fighting for gender equality. It's a campaign to get more men fighting and helping women to achieve gender equality, and it's truly inspiring. Though, some other countries might think differently. Maria's article focuses on the fact that gender equality is not accepted or acceptable in Turkey. Turkey's government believes that there should not be gender equality. The government believes that the men should have more power, and that women are not equal with them. Women are filing for divorces with their husbands, angering them and causing them to kill their wives. The government encourages this, and it's causing a lot of problems in Turkey. The United States struggled with gender equality in the past, and still struggles with it, though to a much smaller degree, today. Though gender inequality has not gone as far as it has in Turkey, at least not to my knowledge, that men would go so far as to kill their wives if they file for divorce. It's important we see the different views of gender equality in different countries so people can create new campaigns and more awareness for gender equality everywhere, and make it known that gender inequality really does exist in many different places at many different levels of discrimination, today!

     Those were the two most talked about topics in the Article of the Week gallery walk, and the topics are both very important to be learning about because they both can effect us, as well as the rest of the world in some way.