I refer to the letter entitled ‘Women and Violence’ by Allan Gatt (March 11).

The quota he refers to is being proposed by the European Commission and the Maltese government agrees with it.

On domestic violence, rather than being led by gut feeling and quotations, the ministry chooses to stick to scientific evidence.

The findings of a qualitative research study conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) were published last week. Over 42,000 women from the 28 EU member states were interviewed. This makes it the world’s biggest-ever qualitative survey on violence against women, revealing the extent of abuse suffered by women at home, work, in public and online. The study demonstrates the wide prevalence of violence against women from childhood to adulthood.

To repeat the words used by FRA in its report, what emerges is a picture of extensive abuse that affects many women’s lives. Often, this abuse goes unreported, hence, the lack of data that we had so far.

Through this research, it has been found that one in three women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence since she was 15 years old.

Out of all women who have a (current or previous) partner, 22 per cent have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by a partner since the age of 15.

Out of the latter, 42 per cent had experienced violence by their previous partner when they were pregnant.

The results for Malta show that 22 per cent of women experienced physical and/or sexual violence since they were 15.

The FRA survey findings show that violence against women is an extensive but widely under-reported human rights abuse. Equality cannot be fully achieved unless we acknowledge the fact that violence against women takes place simply because the victims are women. Gender-based violence intersects with other sources of inequality.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.