फ्रांस में बैन के बाद पूरे शरीर को ढकने वाले स्विमसूट बुर्किनी की बिक्री बढ़ गई है। खास कर गैर मुस्लिम महिलाओं के बीच इसकी बिक्री ज्यादा बढ़ी है। यह किसी और का नहीं बल्कि इसे डिजाइन करने वाली ऑस्ट्रेलियन डिजाइनर का दावा है।

फुल बॉडी स्विम सूट बुर्किनी का ईजाद सिडनी में रहने वाली आहेदा जेनेटी ने किया था। इस डिजाइनर का दावा है कि पिछले आठ साल में 7 लाख बुर्किनी बिक चुकी हैं।

सिडनी मॉर्निंग हेराल्ड को दिए अपने इंटरव्यू में जेनेटी कहती हैं कि बुर्किनी पहनना पसंद का मामला है। बुर्किनी आजादी, सुविधा और आत्मविश्वास से जुड़ी है। इसका परेशानी, प्रताड़ना या आतंकवाद से कोई लेनादेना नहीं है।

फ्रांस सरकार ने बुर्किनी पहनने पर पाबंदी लगा दी है। हालांकि सरकार के इस बेहद विवादित कदम पर सर्वोच्च अदालत ने स्टे लगा दिया है। लेकिन जेनेटी का कहना है कि उनके खरीदारों में हर विचारधारा के लोग शामिल हैं और सबने एकमत से फ्रांस सरकार के इस इकतरफा फैसले का विरोध किया है। वह कहती हैं- मुझे एक गैर मुस्लिम ग्राहक ने वारविक, क्वीन्सलैंड से मैसेज किया – यह एक स्विम सूट ही तो है। इस पर इतना बवाल क्यों। एक और महिला ने अमेरिका से मैसेज किया- मैं स्किन कैंसर से उबरी हूं और आम स्विमसूट पहन कर धूप में नहीं जा सकती हूं।

जेनटी कहती हैं गैर मुस्लिम महिलाएं अक्सर उन्हें ई-मेल कर यह पूछती हैं कि क्या उनके बुर्किनी पहनने पर मुस्लिम धर्मगुरु आपत्ति करेंगे।

फ्रांस सरकार की ओर से बुर्किनी को बैन करने का कुछ अलग ही असर हुआ । इस बैन के बाद बुर्किनी की बिक्री इतनी बढ़ी कि जेनेटी को अपने ब्रांड अहीदा की सप्लाई में मुश्किल आऩे लगी। लोगों तक समय पर डिलीवरी के लिए उन्हें अपनी कुरियर कंपनियों को बदलना पड़ा।

जेनेटी कहती हैं कि जब-जब किसी ने बुर्किनी के खिलाफ कुछ कहा तब-तब तक उनके पास इसकी पूछ-परख से संबंधित आने वाली कॉल्स की तादाद बढ़ गई।

जेनेटी का मानना है कि बुर्किनी की वजह से अब कई सारी महिलाएं खेलों में हिस्सा ले रही हैं और समुद्र तटों पर जा रही हैं। बदन दिखाने की शर्म, स्वास्थ्य और धार्मिक कारणों से इस तरह की महिलाएं पहले इन गतिविधियों से महरूम थीं।

जेनेटी ने मुस्लिम महिलाओं और बुर्किनी की संबंधों पर कहा कि यह महिलाओं के सशक्तिकरण और चुनने की आजादी की प्रतीक है। वह कहती हैं लोग जितना सोचते हैं, मुस्लिम महिलाएं उनसे ज्यादा मजबूत हैं। मुस्लिम महिलाएं सादा जीवनशैली में विश्वास करती हैं।

वर्ष 2007 में अहीदा को समुद्र में सर्फिंग करने वाले लोगों की जिंदगी बचाने वाले लाइफ सेवर्स के लिए बुर्किनी डिजाइन करने का ऑर्डर मिला था। जेनेटी इसे समावेश और सामंजस्य बढ़ाने वाला कदम मानती हैं।

गैर मुस्लिम महिलाओं के बीच बुर्किनी की बढ़ी बिक्री से यह साबित होता है कि महिलाएं स्वभाव से ही पहनावे के मामले में सादगी पसंद होती हैं। आश्चर्य नहीं कि इस्लाम यूरोप में सबसे तेजी से बढ़ने वाला धर्म बनता जा रहा है। इस्लाम अपनाने वालों में ज्यादातर महिलाएं हैं।

साभार  – द सियासत डेली

The post बुर्किनी की ग्राहकों में 45 फीसदी गैर-मुस्लिम appeared first on SabrangIndia.

PHOTOGRAPHS AND VIDEO [1 ] of French police officers issuing tickets to Muslim women — for violating new local ordinances that ban modest beachwear as an offense against “good morals and secularism” in more than a dozen towns along the Riviera — spread widely on social networks on Wednesday, prompting outrage and mockery from opponents of the laws.

France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’Etat, ruled on Friday that such bans were illegal, but by then the damage to the nation’s reputation had already been done.

But the same images were greeted with undisguised glee by extremists eager to make the case that observant Muslims have no place in European countries. A series of photographs published by the Daily Mail — showing armed officers confronting a woman wearing a headscarf, leggings, and a long-sleeved shirt on a beach in Nice on Tuesday — was hailed by the anti-Muslim Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

David Thomson, a French journalist who tracks jihadi activity online, told Radio France that Islamic State sympathizers on social networks seemed surprised to find police officers in Nice “creating propaganda on their behalf” by providing the perfect illustration of their case that France humiliates Muslims.

“For them, this is a godsend,” Thomson said. “The jihadist narrative has insisted for years that it is impossible for a Muslim to practice their religion with dignity in France.” Within minutes of publication, he said, these photographs became one of the most discussed topics in the online “jihadosphere.”

“These shots of Nice,” he added, “will fuel years of jihadist propaganda.”

The irony, Thomson noted last week, is that the specific swimming costume the bans have targeted, the full-body swimsuit known as the “burkini,” is rejected as immodest by Islamist ideologues. Such costumes, he explained, are the sort of adaptation to Western culture Muslim women in France’s North African colonies were once encouraged to make.

On Thursday, activists from a French anticapitalist party, the NPA, held a demonstration against the ban on a beach in Leucate, chanting: “C’est aux femmes de décider: trop couvertes ou pas assez!” (or, “It’s up to women to decide: too covered or not enough!”)

Protesters in London brought sand to the French embassy for a “Wear What You Want” rally against the bans.

The State Council explained its ruling on Friday to suspend an order issued by the mayor of Villeneuve-Loubet, outside Nice, by saying local officials had exceeded the limits of their authority. Restrictions on the use of the beach by certain persons, the council said, threatened fundamental freedoms guaranteed by French law, such as the freedom of movement and freedom of conscience, that could only be justified by a grave threat to public order. “In the absence of such risks,” the court said, “concerns and worries arising from terrorist attacks, including those committed in Nice on July 14, are not sufficient to justify legally the mayor’s order.”

Although the authorities in Nice confirmed that the incident reported by the Mail did take place — and that at least 23 other women have been ticketed there this week and forced to pay 38-euro fines, or about $40 — defenders of the so-called burkini ban accused the unnamed woman of taking part in a staged “provocation.”

Jérémie Boulet, a member of the xenophobic National Front party, argued that the woman must have been trying to bait the authorities into approaching her by wearing such an outfit on a warm day. He also suggested, incorrectly, that she was not sitting on a towel when approached by the officers.

Christian Estrosi, a former mayor of Nice who is now the regional president of the Côte d’Azur, issued a statement on Wednesday in which he called the behavior of the two dozen women fined for their dress this week “unacceptable provocations” intended to “undermine the city’s police officers.” Estrosi also warned people who share images of the police ticketing women on social networks that they could be prosecuted for endangering the officers.

Nice’s deputy mayor, Rudy Salles, claimed in a contentious radio interview with Razi Iqbal of the BBC that women dressing in such attire to go to the beach must have been coerced into doing so by Islamist radicals.

A French photo agency that acquired the rights to the images told Libération that the photographs were “certainly not staged, as some people have alleged,” and were the work of an unnamed freelancer “who happened to be on the beach at the time” looking for images of the ban being enforced. He was about 100 meters away from the woman when he saw the officers approach and shot the encounter using a telephoto lens.

“The freelancer witnessed the scene, which took place at 11 a.m. on Tuesday and lasted roughly 10 minutes,” the agency, Best Image, said in a statement. “The woman was issued with a fine and left the beach a few minutes later. That is all the photographer was able to see.”

Speculation that the officers could have been set up was fueled by the fact that the photographer’s name was not released, but the incident took place the same day that a French journalist, Mathilde Cusin, witnessed something worse: a woman in Cannes being fined by the police and harassed by onlookers. That woman, a 34-year-old mother who gave her first name as Siam, told Agence France-Presse that she was given a ticket for sitting on the beach with her family, wearing a headscarf and leggings. “I had no intention of swimming,” she said.

In an interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, a weekly magazine, the woman said that she was baffled at first by the police officers who told her that beachgoers were obliged to “dress correctly” according to a new ordinance. When she asked the officers what that meant, she was told that she could only stay on the beach if she agreed to wrap her hijab into a headband.

“My children were crying, witnessing my humiliation,” Siam told the magazine. “Even I could not help crying. They humiliated us.”

During her standoff with the police, a crowd of onlookers gathered. Some of them defended the woman, arguing that she was causing no harm and was not even wearing a burkini. Others, however, taunted her with racist remarks. “I was stunned,” she said. “I heard things no one had ever said to my face, like ‘Go home!’” Siam, who was born to French parents in Toulouse, said that someone else added, “We are Catholics here!”

“People demanded that she leave or remove her veil, it was pretty violent,” Cusin told the magazine. “I had the impression of watching a pack go after a woman sitting on the ground in tears with her little girl.”

“What shocked me is that it was mostly people in their 30s, not the elderly as one might imagine,” Cusin added.

“In the country of human rights, I see no trace of the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity,” Siam said. “I am outraged that this could happen in France.”

Speaking to the BBC in English on Thursday, Siam said, “I feel like a stranger in my country.”

“Today we are banned from the beach,” she told Al Jazeera’s AJ+ in a video interview. “Tomorrow it will be the street.”

“We are women. We are adults,” she added. “And if the headscarf is a personal choice, and if women want to wear it, why stop them?”

[1 ] Numerous illustrations are not reproduced herere.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in
 

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The post From Bikini to Burkini? 45% Burkini Buyers Are Non-Muslim Women appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Reduced to symbols of national identity, women are caught in the center of a tug-of-war in which any amount of violence, of coercion and regulation of their bodies is justified in order to win the battle. (Though the French Supreme Court stayed the ban on August 26, the issue remains relevant).

Photo credit: Chris Carlson/AP/Press Association Images

Approximately two years ago in Turkey, there was an odd case in which AKP-allied Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc made a statement declaring that it was indecent for women to laugh in public or, presumably, in mixed company.Naturally, this statement was effectively a call to arms. Women took to social media in droves, posting pictures of themselves smiling accompanied by the hashtags #direnkahkaha (resist laughing) and #direnkadin (resist woman). Many similar stories have come out of the Middle East since the rise of social media, in which online activists and citizens protest their government’s encroachments upon their self-representation and lifestyle.

Recently, another such viral campaign came in the form of Masih Alinejad’s “My Stealthy Freedom Project.” A fascinating challenge to both Iran’s state-enforced gender binary and state-enforced veiling/modesty codes of dress, this campaign as well as the #resistlaughing campaign and many others like it have been hailed in international media as shining examples of women and their male allies fighting against a repressive and reactionary theocratic state, and received well-deserved popularity and accolades for their bravery.

Last week, another story of reactionary state control over women’s bodies rose for its moment of international attention, yet this time the tone of coverage by international media outlets was generally one of uncomfortable ambivalence. Beginning with the cancellation of a planned party at a waterpark and expanding to include legislation by several towns in France and an ongoing protest, the 'burkini' (a swimming costume allowing for most of the body to remain covered while in the water) has become a central topic in France’s ongoing crisis over its relationship to its Muslim citizens.

The burkini has now been reportedly banned in five towns including Cannes, with local leaders and political pundits flinging about phrases such as, “saving the soul of France” and “national security” as justification for the ban. It is worth noting that the hysteria over the burkini is somewhat comical, given that there was no incident or issue that directly prompted it. 

Muslim women in France are a minority group, and obviously not all Muslim women in France desire to don this particular style of swimwear (in fact, The Times even reported that many of the mayors considering implementing a ban admitted they had never actually seen a burkini). But sadly, the cognitive link between what is visibly recognized as Islamic styles of modest dress and threats of terrorism is already well established in France. One, it would appear, does not have to work hard to convince the majority populace that there is a direct link between a woman who covers her hair in public and a suicide bomber.

As for the women in France directly affected by the 'burkini ban': we must ask ourselves why it is that their protest is not being portrayed in international media as a plucky, charming and promising challenge to encroaching state repression in the same manner as the protests in Turkey, Iran, and so many other places.

This is a multi-layered issue, and not one that should be attributed solely to the bias or the Islamophobia of international media outlets. What is remarkable is the relative silence of most major progressive feminist groups and publications. It would appear that no one quite knows what to do with this issue, other than carefully report its bare facts and hope that someone else draws the conclusions.

When protesting for their right to swim comfortably, what recourse do these women have? What hashtag can they generate when their voices have already been inscribed by the leaders of their own society as the voices of terrorism, as the voices of “provocation” and “enslavement”?

Within France however, the conclusions were drawn before the issue even arose. When protesting for their right to swim comfortably, what recourse do these women have? What hashtag can they generate when their voices have already been inscribed by the leaders of their own society as the voices of terrorism, as the voices of “provocation” and “enslavement”? Anything they say, any argument they make for the right to present their bodies and their identities in a manner of their choosing has already been filtered through the grotesque, distorting mirror of “security threat”.

France has had an unspeakably tragic year, and the reaction to legislate accordingly is more than understandable. What is becoming less understandable is the unspoken yet clearly present policy decision that marginalizing large groups of France’s population (French citizens included), that making France as unlivable a place as possible for anyone who is not 'culturally French' (read: secular), that inconveniencing the lives of women and creating misery and disillusionment is an effective strategy of counterterrorism.

It is utterly baffling to think that the mayor of Cannes, that French politicians and policy makers do not see the parallel structure of their own attempts to wage the 'culture war' (itself an absurd notion) upon the bodies of women to the same attempts being made in countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

It is utterly baffling to think that the mayor of Cannes, that French politicians and policy makers do not see the parallel structure of their own attempts to wage the 'culture war' (itself an absurd notion) upon the bodies of women to the same attempts being made in countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The heavy-handed puppetry involved in forcing women to perform and present the national image as a part of themselves, all in the name of their own 'liberation', is a dangerous product of both the colonial era and of the same theories of eugenics that formed the theoretical basis of Hitler’s Nazi regime.

The idea that national identity and safety must be represented on the bodies and behaviors of women is terrifying. 

In France’s case, it does a deep disservice both to France’s Muslim minority population and to French women in general, including those whose identities and lifestyles fit within the range of what is considered 'culturally French.' In these times of enhanced surveillance, of the repressive and violent policing of noncompliant bodies and of governmental states of exception declared in which we are told that all of us, citizen and non-citizen alike, must give up many of our previously legislated rights in the name of our own security. The idea that national identity and safety must be represented on the bodies and behaviors of women is terrifying.  

The mobilization of certain French feminist organizations in support of the ban is particularly troubling. For example, socialist minister for families, children and women’s rights Laurence Rossignol stated that she is in favor of the ban, and will “fight strongly” against the ideology that she believes the burkini represents.

To draw the ideological analogy – were Ms. Laurence Rossignol [socialist minister for families, children and women’s rights] to be told that in order to receive a career promotion, women in France must wear short skirts and lasciviously flirt with male superiors, wouldn't she have strong reservations? Yet, as it stands, this is effectively what she is asking a particular segment of France’s Muslim community to do.

Yet apparently the ideology that a woman must free herself by putting her body on display for the pleasure and pride of an audience of (largely male) French politicians is one that Ms. Rossignol has no problem adopting. To draw the ideological analogy – were Ms. Rossignol to be told that in order to receive a career promotion, women in France must wear short skirts and lasciviously flirt with male superiors, wouldn't she have strong reservations?

Yet, as it stands, this is effectively what she is asking a particular segment of France’s Muslim community to do. To regulate their behavior and display their bodies in a way that is pleasing to the eye of those in positions of power over them and in line with what is expected of them. This line of argument against “the enslavement of women” is little more than racism and sexism couched in the language of feminism.

It is utterly imperative that the culture war being dually constructed by extremist and reactionary clerics within Islamic contexts, and by extremist and reactionary members of the French government be named for what it is: a battle in which two supposedly opposing 'sides' reaffirm and support the dogma of the other, effectively forming an alliance of enemies within which both sides unintentionally aid the other to inflict violence.

Reduced to symbols of national identity, women are caught in the center of a tug-of-war in which any amount of violence, of coercion and regulation of their bodies is justified in order to win the battle. Non-Muslim French women, it is a grave mistake to think that this will not affect you. Europe has already seen the ultimate conclusion of such projects of national unity = national image, and it likely will again.

I find myself hoping that the political leaders in France who support such legislation are somehow simply blind to the staggering similarities between their own actions and the actions of those 'archaic' governments that mandate a moral dress code for women in public. Because if they do see this parallel, and simply do not care, we are truly in dangerous waters.

(Janine Rich writes by day and studies by night with a BA in Middle Eastern studies and International Relations. She is an American who currently lives in Istanbul. Find her on Twitter @OyVeyYani)

This story was first published on openDemocracy.

The post The ‘Burkini Battle’: France’s Capitulation to Extremism appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The day after the imam published his post, he awoke to find his account blocked.

″It′s incomprehensible. I have to send them an ID document to reactivate it. They wanted to make sure it′s my account – it′s a very strange procedure,″ the indignant imam told La Repubblica.
 

 

On Friday, his account was back in: the imam said he hopes it wasn′t blocked because of the picture, as it urges dialogue, and ″we live in a society of law and freedom.″

He also noted that the burkini had only come into fashion among Muslim women over the past few years and he expressed regret that ″some politicians in France, instead of responding to the political and economic needs of their citizens, are focusing on how Muslims dress.″

On Tuesday, Italy′s Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told Corriere Della Serra that Italy wouldn′t follow France′s suit and ban the burkini, but will step up regulations of imams and mosques.
Two days later, Italian authorities expelled the Tunisian imam Khairredine Romdhane Ben Chedli. The 35-year-old imam was lately absolved of terrorism-related charges, but still deemed unfit to remain in his post, the ANSA news agency said.    (Russia Today)

Courtesy: Qantara.de

This incident followed fast on the heels of a knee-jerk and widely criticised reaction of the French authorities, theough the French police making woman remove clothing on Nice beach following the 'Burkini ban'.
Authorities in 15 towns have banned burkinis, citing public concern following recent terrorist attacks in the country

The Guardian reported that Photographs have emerged of armed French police confronting a woman on a beach and making her remove some of her clothing as part of a controversial ban on the burkini.
Authorities in several French towns have implemented bans on the burkini,which covers the body and head, citing concerns about religious clothing in the wake of recent terrorist killings in the country.
The images of police confronting the woman in Nice on Tuesday show at least four police officers standing over a woman who was resting on the shore at the town’s Promenade des Anglais, the scene of last month’s Bastille Day lorry attack.

French agency AFP saw a ticket given to the woman by police, which said she was not ‘wearing an outfit respecting good morals and secularism’. Photograph: Vantagenews.com

After they arrive, she appears to remove a blue long-sleeved tunic, although one of the officers appears to take notes or issue an on-the-spot fine.

The photographs emerged as a mother of two also told on Tuesday how she had been fined on the beach in nearby Cannes wearing leggings, a tunic and a headscarf.Her ticket, seen by French news agency AFP, read that she was not wearing “an outfit respecting good morals and secularism”.

The woman was on the beach when the police arrived. Photograph: Vantagenews.com

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Rio 2016 is proving not just to be a platform for sporting prowess, it is also helping to shake up some traditionally-held cultural misconceptions too.

In the West, many regard traditional Muslim dress like the hijab as a sign of oppression, with women forced to wear the garments by men. But it is not as simple as that: many women choose to wear the hijab as a sign of faith, feminism, or simply because they want to.

Recently, 19-year-old Egyptian volleyball player Doaa Elghobashy’s decision to wear a hijab while competing against Germany caused a stir. Her and partner Nada Meawad’s team uniform of long sleeved tops and ankle length trousers were already a “stark contrast” to the German competitors' bikinis, yet it was Elghobashy’s hijab that media attention focused on.
 

Doaa Elgobashy at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Reuters

Elgobashy and Meawad were the first team to represent Egypt in volleyball at the Olympics and, in the words of Elgobashy, the hijab which she has worn for ten years “doesn’t keep me away from the things I love to do”.

The determination and sporting prowess that Elgobashy displayed is a polar opposite to the assumption that all hijab-wearing Muslim women are passive and oppressed. The support and celebration that Elgobashy’s hiajb has also received is in direct contrast to the banning of burkinis in several French towns – though to look at both outfits, they cover the same amount of the body.

Many Muslim women today are wearing hijabs and other traditional dress to challenge the assumption that these are symbols of control. In fact, there are several revealing truths about Muslim dress that society must hear.

1. Women are not forced to wear hijabs

Some women choose to wear the hijab because it is a national tradition of their country of origin, or because it is the norm in their local area, city or country. Others wear it to demonstrate their commitment to dressing modestly and for religious reasons. Like any item of clothing, some women wear the hijab for specific occasions, such as for family or community events, or during particular times of day but take it off at other times, such as wearing the hijab to and from school or work but taking it off while studying or working.

A very small minority may claim to be forced to wear the hijab. However, many studies show that in fact Muslim women choose to wear the hijab as a way of showing self-control, power and agency.

2. You’re not sexually oppressed

Many hijab wearers have said that they wear the veil not as a symbol of control by a man, but rather to promote their own feminist ideals. For many Muslim women, wearing a hijab offers a way for them to take control of their bodies and to claim a stance that challenges the ways in which women are marginalised by men.

Research has shown that for young Muslim women, wearing a hijab says little about the likelihood of them having a boyfriend or participating in a sexual relationship. Indeed, some young women have said they would wear the hijab to give them more space to engage in such activities.
 

Pakistani activist, Nobel Prize laureate and hijab-wearer Malala Yousafzai. Niall Carson / PA Archive/Press Association Images

3. You’re not more likely to be linked to terrorism

Since 9/11, negative media coverage of Muslim communities, alongside government counter-terrorism policies in many Western countries, has further demonised Muslims. British research has shown that government policies have resulted in Muslims receiving unjustified attention in airport security, for example. They have also been shown to have created extra tensions and divisions between Muslim communities and the police.

For some hijab wearers, the hatred towards Muslim communities pushed them to stop wearing the veil after terrorist incidents, like the 7/7 London bombings, in order to minimise the chance of them experiencing racism. However, at the same time others started to wear the hijab to show their commitment to their religious faith. The hijab therefore cannot be a fixed symbol, but is far more flexible and changeable – and certainly cannot be deemed a marker of terrorism.

4. It’s not a ‘West versus rest’ division

There are many different styles, colours and shapes of hijab including different ways of wearing it. There is also a rising transnational Muslim fashion trade focusing particularly on younger women. In many respects, the hijab is similar to any other item of clothing with businesses marketing different styles and brands in order to maximise sales.
 

Patriotism, politics and hijab combine at a US democratic rally. EPA

This global fashion trade transcends national and regional boundaries. It is about maximising the market rather than reinforcing divisions between the West and the Muslim “rest”. Rather than asking why a women is wearing a hijab to reinforce difference, we should ask what high street store or online retailer she purchased her clothing from and what attracted her to this brand. For some wearers, this is far more pertinent and telling of their personality.

5. The hijab is not something to be feared

A recently published report of anti-Muslim abuse in England found that more than 60% of victims are women, and 75% of these women were visibly Muslim so were likely to be wearing some form of head-covering.

Women were also more likely than men to suffer anti-Muslim attacks on public transport or when shopping. The vast majority of the perpetrators in these incidents were white men, motivated by stereotypes. So rather than being feared, it’s more likely that women wearing hijab might fear others.

Muslim women wear the hijab for many different reasons all of which can change over time. This applies if the wearer is a community activist, an Olympic athlete like Elghobashy, a PhD student, a mother of young children or some or all of these. Any assumption that society attaches to the veil will never be right for each individual wearer, and it is for that very reason that we need to start changing the way we view it.

(Peter Hopkins is professor of Social Geography, Newcastle University).

This story was first published on The Conversation.

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