The second sex

In a scene that lasts for almost 10 minutes, the woman is dragged by the hair, flung to the ground and kicked in the stomach. It is not an isolated incident, but one that received attention because a witness captured it on film and posted it on You Tube. As news of the incident spread like wildfire, the abuser got away with a slap on the wrist.

The victim’s boyfriend – Emanuel Sammut, 41, of Birkirkara – was fined €175 for disturbing the peace, offending public morals and being drunk. What about the violence?

The victim renounced assault charges against the brute (a euphemism in this case) that attacked her, which probably contributed to the lenient judgment in court. Yet, the offence was committed in a public place and proof of the offence is available. The victim’s complaint is not required to prosecute and decide such cases.

The victim’s actions are understandable. When she leaves the courtroom, she is left to face her attacker. She has to protect herself. It reflects a lack of trust in the institutions that are there to protect her. And the court’s decision reveals that she is right. The judgment delivered serves to reinforce such perceptions in vulnerable women. It was a missed opportunity.

Violence against women happens behind closed doors in most cases – hard to detect and even harder to escape from. It is rare for such incidents to be caught on film. The fact that it was, strengthened the case – it provided irrefutable evidence of the violence and generated public awareness of the problem. This was an opportunity for the courts to send a message that violence against women is not tolerated in this society. Instead, the court reinforced existing perceptions that the rhetoric on ‘no tolerance’ for domestic violence is just empty talk.

There are staggering statistics that show that the need to address domestic violence is urgent. Over a quarter of women in Malta have been physically, emotionally or sexually abused by their current or former partner, according to the Domestic Violence Commission. The same survey revealed that more than 60 per cent of physically abused women had suffered severe violence that included being kicked, punched, dragged or threatened with a gun.

There were almost 3,000 cases of reports made to the local police on domestic violence in 10 years, according to figures provided by Government to the United Nations. In no way are such figures representative of the true scale of the problem, because a vast number of incidents remain unreported.

The Malta Confederation of Womens’ Organisations (MCWO) said that up to one in four women in Malta has experienced domestic violence. A  more “worrying fact is that only 50% of women enduring domsetic violence seek help, while over one third of research respondents believe that domestic violence should be kept within the confines of the family.”

You would be forgiven for thinking that, in this country, violence against women is still not considered a priority. Slogans are not enough to address the problem. What is needed is concrete action – measures to prevent domestic violence should tackle the root of this problem and combine victims’ support with preventive and legal measures.

State institutions and services failed 40-year-old Christina Sammut, who was shot dead in Mgarr last December by a disgruntled ex-boyfriend. She had sought police assistance on a number of occasions, including the time when reports state he had threatened her with a knife.

She was not alone. Catherine Agius – another 40 year-old mother – was stabbed and murdered by her estranged husband last year, as she stepped out of a bus in Tarxien. This death closely followed another fatality where a man broke into a Cospicua home and attacked his ex-girlfriend and her mother with a knife. The 61-year-old mother, Therese Vella, was killed.

The trend continued, with domestic violence making headlines this year too. On New Year’s Eve, a 62-year-old woman suffered facial and head injuries, and her husband was accused of injuring her at their home in Gozo. Last January, a 26-year-old, Sean Grima, was charged with disfiguring his girlfriend Alicia Spiteri.  The following month, Stephen Vella, 34, of Qormi was charged with trying to strangle his former girlfriend with a telephone cord on Valentine’s Day.

Only last week, James Demanuele, 37, was found guilty of attacking Maria Elena Felice… while she was in court. He struck her and kicked her as she fell to the ground, breaking a bone in her foot. The attacker has another pending court case involving violence against the same woman – the ongoing case refers to another incident that once again occurred inside a courtroom.

If the victims of violence are not sufficiently protected in court, where could they possibly be safe from their abusers? If violence against women is to be seriously addressed, the starting point is a questioning of attitudes. The perception that women are the second sex is still firmly established in Maltese society.

The police are the “the weakest link in the process of protecting those who fall victim to the trauma that is domestic violence,’ according to the Malta Confederation of Women’s Organisations.

Policies and workplaces forged in an era of ‘stay at home mums’ and ‘breadwinner dads’ are putting too many barriers in the way of true gender equality. The desire for equality has been flattened beneath a barrage of discourse that suggests all women really want is a man and a family to care for. “Family values” are the priority promoted in this society, which came to the fore in the divorce ‘debate’, without due consideration given to the individuals who form that family unit.

The country needs a total overhaul of the way society sees women because inequality between men and women is structural. Fundamental shifts are needed in local culture, in national laws and in business practices. Attention must be paid to the myriad, ordinary forms of daily discrimination that women continue to face, be it lower pay or the continuing constraints of domestic life and motherhood, because gender equality is the lasting solution to domestic violence.

Dr Carmen Sammut will be talking about domestic violence and gender equality on her radio programme ‘Stampa Cara’ on Saturday 12 March between 10.05 a.m. and noon on RTK

Caroline Muscat is a freelance journalist. She was awarded the European Commission's national prize for journalism against discrimination in 2010. Read her blog here.