Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1441473
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 9 JANUARY 2022 INTERVIEW accountable for the behaviour of men' interpret Abner Aquilina's actions as a natural (albeit extreme) extension of the same culture that has 'normalised' oth- er so many other crimes against women: such as harassment, stalking, domestic violence, and so on? Yes. I do see it that way. Because vio- lence against women is, in fact, a contin- uum. It starts with: 'Aw, gisem!'… and, at the clean other end of the spectrum, it ends in femicide. Somewhere along the same line, however, you will also find inti- mate partner violence; physical violence; sexual violence; emotional violence; har- assment; stalking; stranger assault… you know: all the things that add up to vio- lence, in one form or another, targeting women. And yes, they are all connected. Be- cause it is all part of the same patriarchy; of the same misogynistic culture that we live in… and it all goes back to the same, deeply ingrained gender stereotypes that we have all been absorbing - often with- out even realising it - since early child- hood. As young girls, for instance, we have al- ways been taught – and this is certainly still true, to this day – to be 'responsible for own safety'. We have always been held responsible – no, 'accountable' – for the behaviour of men. So if something happens to a wom- an, late at night… the question that gets asked is, 'Why was she out at that time?'… or, 'Why was she dressed like that?'… or, 'Was she drunk?' [Pause] Because of course, if a woman gets raped while drunk… it's all her own fault, for having got drunk in the first place. And she was 'asking for it', too, by dress- ing like that… anyway, you know what I mean. But then, if a man gets drunk, and rapes a woman… suddenly, his drunkenness becomes a 'mitigating factor'. It means that he was 'not in control of his own ac- tions'. So while the rape-victim ends up getting 'blamed' for being drunk… we end up excusing the rapist, for exactly the same reason… On the subject of 'mitigating factors': there have been indications that both our laws concerning women's safe- ty - and also their enforcement by the police, the judiciary, and so on – often leave much to be desired. Since last Sunday, for instance, numerous women have claimed reporting harassment cas- es to the police – including by Aquilina himself – but were ignored… Well, you have to also bear in mind that all those institutions you just mentioned – the police, the judiciary, and so on – are all, ultimately, composed of people, just like you and I. And just like you and I… they, too, were all brought up deeply immersed in the same patriarchal culture; they all had the same traditional gender stereotypes in- culcated into them – about what men and women 'should be', and how they 'should behave' - almost from the day they were born. Of course, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're all going to be misogynists, as a result; but it does mean that - when it comes to assessing cases involving crimes against women, for instance - their own reactions; their attitudes; their decisions, and so on, will all be subconsciously shaped by the same, patriarchal cultural influences. So, just as the general public might react to any given rape by asking, 'what was she doing out at that time?' – not in relation to Paulina Dembska, by the way; I'm talk- ing generally here – well, the police them- selves often react in exactly the same way. Just to mention one specific case, out of several that I happen to be familiar with: when a domestic violence victim report- ed her partner to the police… the inspec- tor's reaction was to say: 'U le, qed tghag- giba! Mur id-dar u ahsel wiccek, u tara li m'ghandek xejn! [Oh, you're just making a fuss, that's all. Go home and wash your face, you'll see that you're not hurt'…] And this raises several serious problems, apart from the obvious – i.e., that if that is the sort of treatment domestic violence victims are expected to receive… you can hardly blame them for being reluctant to report cases to the police, can you? But it also goes to show that it is not enough to have adequate laws, either. What those experiences tell us, is that we can be signatories to all the relevant treaties, yes, and we can and enact all the proper necessary legislation – but the law itself is still mediated by people, at the end of the day. So unless we finally come to grips with the underlying misogynistic culture itself – unless we somehow manage to instil a generational culture change, of the kind that is so sorely needed – the problem it- self cannot ever be solved, only through 'legislative touches' here and there. Another issue, however, concerns the resources available to the police. In spite of all the improvements that have taken place – including a dedicated unit, specif- ically to cater for domestic violence - we have still noted a significant increase in domestic violence reports, from 2019 to 2020. Now: part of this increase is certainly down to the greater awareness that ex- ists today. But the fact remains that there has still been a sharp rise in the number of cases currently being reported to the police. Now: has there been any corre- sponding, proportional increase to the human resources available to the police, to actually handle that volume of cases? I'm not saying this to justify the sort of behaviour I just described, naturally… and I'm not saying there haven't been any improvements to the police's human re- sources at all, either. But from the figures we're seeing today – not just in police reports, by the way… but also from shelters, and social welfare agencies such as Appogg – it doesn't look like they have increased, in direct propor- tion to the case-load they now have to deal with… But that brings us right back to the ques- tion you yourself raised earlier. How safe is Malta for women, anyway? Because let's face it: in an environment where almost ALL women report experiencing harassment, in one form or another - and when harassment itself forms part of the same spectrum that leads to vio- lence against women – the implications are disturbing, to say the least… Well, as I said before: women have al- ways been held accountable for their own safety. And this is particularly relevant to the femicide we are talking about right now. In fact, I've seen many comments on so- cial media – far too many, I might add - along the lines that: 'women should learn self-defence'; or they should 'carry weap- ons like pepper spray', and so on… [Pause] I mean, what the bloody hell? It is men who should be taught not to harass women – and even more so, not to rape and murder them – and certain- ly NOT 'women who should be taught self-defence'! [Deep breath] But then again… it takes us back to those same inbuilt gender ste- reotypes I've been talking about all along. It is yet another case of 'holding women accountable, for the behaviour of men'. So unless we do eventually learn that: no, women's primary role is not to 'serve men'… and no, there should be no such thing as 'male privilege', in any shape or form… we can only expect that culture to result in more violence against women, and not less. PHOTO: JAMES BIANCHI / MALTATODAY