Women from different organisations organised a rally in Valletta to express their collective anger at the culture of violence that permeates in society, a statement by the groups read.
The 25th of November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. The theme chosen for this year is Her Plight, Our Fight, “because the suffering, the oppression, the abuse, the murder of every woman in society make us stronger to continue fighting against this wound in our society,” they said.
“Gender-based violence and abuse is widespread in our patriarchal society where women tend to be the worst victims. Women suffer violence in all its forms, not only in the domestic sphere by their partners or relatives, but also in the public sphere, such as when they are raped or killed in the street or public places, trafficked to work in the sex industry, abused by their employers, neglected by politicians, disrespected by the justice system, and ignored by the police and sent to their death by a society which does not care enough. Women are abused by men physically, sexually, morally, psychologically, economically, politically in their everyday lives because society is not doing enough to protect women and to fight the violence,” the statement read.
“By joining together for this rally, we wanted to show that we care and that we want change. We wanted to send a clear message that the plight of every woman in society is our fight, and that our fight will continue until our streets, our homes, our places of work, are safe for us. We will continue to fight until the authorities invest in the fight against gender-based violence, until the police force recognises the seriousness of this problem and starts taking women seriously when they report abuse and feel threatened by men, until the justice system realises the needless suffering that victims of violence and their families go through by the inefficiencies and the injustices of the system.”
“We have seen sentences handed down which do not make any sense and long years of waiting for action to be taken or for justice to be served, such as in the case of Sion Grech, which caused a great deal of suffering to victims or their loved ones. We have witnessed women who continually reported their vulnerable situation but ended up being murdered because the system did not care enough to protect them against their aggressor,” the statement continued.
Gender-based violence is a scourge in society which we need to fight together, the groups said. “Over the past decades, Malta has witnessed the murder of 32 women by male aggressors, most of whom were intimate partners. Intimate partner violence is one of the worst and most widespread forms of violence against women. The ugly impact of violence is not only experienced by the victims but by their children, their families and close friends. Until we confront this problem seriously and fight it with all our strength, women, including trans women, will continue to experience fear and insecurity when they walk in the streets, when they are at work, or at home where they are supposed to feel safest. Unless we join forces and fight to make our society free of gender-based violence, women will continue to be the main victims of sexual abuse, trafficking, intimidation, fear, harassment, rape, stalking, murder, porn and cyberbullying.”
During the rally, demonstrators held banners and placards with messages against gender-based violence.
The rally was organised by Moviment Graffitti and YPB and endorsed by the following organisations: aditus foundation, Dance Beyond Borders, Department of Gender and Sexualities, Fidem#, Humanists Malta, IVY – Interrupting Violence towards Youth, Malta Women’s Lobby, Marceline Naudi, MGRM, SOAR, Women for Women Foundation, Women’s Rights Foundation (WRF), YMCA, Żminijietna Voice of the Left
