Anti-divorce lobby 'targeting women’s fears'

Speaking during a press conference on Monday, Schembri referred to the mounting concerns of women in the fact of an increasingly aggressive ‘targeting’ campaign by the anti-divorce lobby.

“The anti-divorce lobby seems to think that women are only capable of staying at home and depend on their husband’s income or maintenance. They forget that there are women who work, who support their families even after separation, and have the strength to last them through,” she said.

“They are scaring women into believing they can lose their maintenance, and that they would be worse off with the introduction of divorce,” she said. “But under today’s separation laws, those women who work already do not receive maintenance to begin with.”

She said that at the same time, the vast majority of consensual separations being granted today carry clauses that if the marriage is rendered null (such as with annulment), separation agreements such as maintenance cannot change.

“Despite this, we wanted to err on the side of caution insofar as maintenance should still be ensured for those spouses who are eligible for it,” she said, explaining why the divorce draft law features specific clauses ensuring that all agreements reached during the separation stage persist past the decree of divorce.

“People who are claiming otherwise are simply being misleading,” Schembri said.

She also slammed the anti-divorce camp’s suggestion that women would be left by their partners, or leave their partners themselves, “for no reason”.

”This is also an insult to men: do they think men are shallow enough to leave their wives if they gain weight past size 10? If it were the case, there wouldn’t be much hope for women like me,” Schembri said.

“Divorce comes into play well after one spouse actually leaves the other, after separation stage,” she said. “To insist otherwise would be to insult people’s intelligence.”

She referred to statements made by Cana Movement President Anna Vella on a recent radio programme, during which she was confronted by a woman recounting her experience of domestic abuse at the hands of a violent husband.

“Should I remain married to him? the woman asked,” Schembri said, “to which Anna Vella replied: ‘My husband had hair when I married him. Now he has lost it. Should I be able to leave him?’ “

“Banalising domestic violence in this way by comparing it to hair loss is inconceivable,” Schembri said.

Referring to the issue of pension eligibility for former wives, she said that these are entitled only by marriage, once marriage ends, pension rights also end.

However, she said the divorce bill features a clause (71.9) that empowers the judge to take into account the investment that the former wife had put into the marriage, and adjust the maintenance accordingly.

She added that none of this is provided for in annulment, and the right to any pension automatically drops when the marriage is annulled. “Divorce however, provides former spouses the right to have their ‘investment’ into the marriage taken into consideration by having their maintenance adjusted accordingly.”