Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1450614
8 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 FEBRUARY 2022 INTERVIEW Raphael Vassallo rvassallo@mediatoday.com.mt Femicide is a symptom, not a cause 'Men Against Violence': it's almost something that shouldn't even need to be said, isn't it? In theory, all human beings – male or female – should be opposed to violence (even if just for the sake self-preservation). Yet we all know this is not really the case. Is this part of the statement your organisation is trying to make? That we need to be reminded that 'men should be against violence'… because some men, at least, are not? Let me start with this. 'Violence against women' is a historic problem. It is not something that has suddenly cropped up, out of nowhere, in recent years. Nonethe- less, it is a historic problem that is still with us – mostly unchanged – to this day. But when we talk about these issues – gender-based violence; domestic vio- lence, violence targeting women, and so on… and you can extend this to almost any other issue concerning women: single mothers, equality at the place-of-work, etc. – the focus is always on the victim. We provide support services to victims of vio- lence, for instance. But while this is all well and good… it is still a case of treating only the 'symptom', and not the 'cause'. This is, in fact, the way society always tends to approach such problems: we react only to the specific act of violence itself… and even then, only after it has already happened. But then, we seem to overlook the fact that, in the vast majority of such cases, the violence would have been initi- ated, and perpetrated, by… men. Naturally, I am not going to say that 'no woman has ever been violent'; because that would be blatantly untrue. But the vast majority of violence that takes place in society – whether specifically targeting women, or not – is undeniably perpetrat- ed by men. This is a statistical proven fact; but it is also something that usually gets left out of the discussion. It was partly for this reason that we felt the need, in 2014, to set up 'Men Against Violence'. We felt it was important to at least bring up the idea, in public, that men CAN be opposed to violence – any form of violence – and that we can actively work towards 'doing something about it'. By asking ourselves, for instance, 'what can be changed'… 'what can be done better'… And in this, we are naturally aligned with other groups – mostly women's rights or- ganisations – that have been struggling with this problem for decades, if not cen- turies. Our view is that there is a role that men can play: especially, in those areas where women are excluded; or which they don't have any access to. Examples might include 'locker-room talk'; the way men talk about women among themselves, for instance; or how men react to the actions of other men, in such cases… You talk about gender-based women as a 'historic problem'; but while that is certainly true, there seems to the im- pression – greatly reinforced by (but not limited to) the recent murder of Paulina Dembska – that it is also on the increase. You yourself recently posted a reminder of the many Maltese women who have been victims of femicide, in one form or another, over the years. Do you see the problem as escalating? I'm not so sure that this 'impression' you're talking about, is in itself anything new. People who work in this field – espe- cially, women's rights movements – have been aware of the problem, and talking about it, for a very long time. But the trouble is that these things are, and have always been, 'hidden'. Violence against women has always been there; but it has always mostly taken place behind closed doors. So the people on the front- line – the social workers, the NGOs, and all the agencies involved – are well aware of how extensive, and persistent, the prob- lem is; and that it keeps on happening, over and over again. And they are also aware of certain failures of the system, sometimes. But yes, there has certainly been more public awareness recently; and this is, af- ter all, to be expected. Because if some- thing keeps on happening, over and over again… sooner or later, it will exceed the tipping point. The pressure keeps building up, behind the scenes; only to eventually explode, like a dam bursting… Another factor, however, has been the Internet, and the proliferation of social media. This is, at the end of the day, quite a recent phenomenon; and whatever its other flaws, social media does help a lot, to bring awareness out. Women hear other women speak; and it encourages them to come forward with their own stories… and it also gives women more ways to bring their message out: to ask why these things continue to happen; and what can be done about it. On the subject of 'failures of the system': as a journalist, I have observed a notice- able trend in gender-based violence ALEKSANDER DIMITRIJEVIC, of the NGO 'Men Against Violence', argues that only a long-term, political commitment to culture-change, can address the historic problem of male violence against women