Femicide: without women’s liberation, we all bear responsibility

I write this in anger, shock and frustration at yet another femicide in Malta which could – and should – have been avoided. I will not delve into the matter of whether the State bares any direct responsibility in this case. I will leave that to Mr Justice Geoffrey Valencia, however I will speak about our country’s indirect responsibility when it comes to this femicide and others which have happened in the past.

We have been brought up in a society which disregards women’s autonomy over their own body. A society that believes that when it comes to their own healthcare, women do not know best and that they should be obliged to follow outdated, draconian laws proposed by Maltese governments and legislated by consecutive Parliaments in which hardly any women were ever present.

At the same time, for populist reasons, political parties have shied away from proposing a number of laws in their electoral manifestos, because in a patriarchal society, women’s rights, especially their sexual and reproductive rights, are not popular.

Do you know that till today Maltese women, who for whatever reason opt for sterilisation through our national health services, need their husband’s consent? Could you believe that women who would not have as yet had children of their own, and who are not over a certain age, even though they are adults, would not be allowed to opt for sterilisation unless it is for medical reasons?

And then the biggest taboo of all, abortion. Until last week when Government proposed an amendment that would allow pregnant people to terminate their pregnancy due to health matters, we had seen no willingness from the State to leave women decide for themselves on their own health matters, even when their lives were at risk. Isn’t this state-sponsored gender-based violence?

Let’s see who in Parliament will dare oppose this amendment which is still far away from liberating women and giving them the ability choose on their own body, whatever their reason is!

This is how our society has treated women. And over here, I am only speaking about just a few sexual and reproductive health and rights in which women are not free to decide over what is best for them. I could start a very long list of other matters in which according to our society, married women would need their husband’s consent over their own decisions. While obviously being very wrong, why are we then so shocked that a husband thinks that his wife is his own property and that he could decide everything for her, and if she does not submit, he believes that the only solution is to kill her? Women submitting to what society expects of them is the norm.

We should shoulder this responsibility as a society for the murder of Bernice Cassar. Although some of us might have spoken and loudly on women’s liberation, bodily autonomy and freedom of choice, we have not been loud enough. We have not pushed as much as we could to bring change. We have not called out all of those who preach and promote a society that limits women in their choices. We have not stopped and called out those who think it is funny to pass jokes on women, their role in society or jokes on their bodies – and this applies to homophobic, anti-Semitic and racist jokes especially uttered in groups.

We have failed Bernice Cassar. We have failed her children. Let’s make it a point that we do not keep on failing her daughter and that by the time she and others come of age, they would live in a society that treats women equally and allows them to make their own decisions for themselves.