Without divorce, the people were being denied the right to remarry and forced into cohabitation, Deborah Schembri, the head of the Divorce Movement said this afternoon.

She told a news conference that was receiving maintenance following a failed marriage would lose this financial support if he/she cohabited.

This was most detrimental to women who depended on men for financial support.

For while men, who were usually financially independent from their former wife, were able to enter into a second relationship, women who received monetary assistance from their ex-husband could not, unless they were willing to lose this assistance.

In spite of her comments, Dr Schembri criticised the No movement for painting a picture of society were women were dependent on men.

Women, she said, wanted to be loved, respected, and in a loving family above all, she said.

She pointed out that around 90 per cent of separations were consensual with maintenance generally forfeited.

Dr Schembri also spoke on the forthcoming cohabitation bill and said it was legally impossible for this to provide for separated individuals as well as unmarried persons.

Although the No movement did not see the actual bill, it did see a study which had been carried out by the social affairs committee, she said.

The movement had asked the Prime Minister to release the bill prior to the referendum but its request was turned down.