A person I am very fond of likes to answer me as follows when I complain about Malta’s drawbacks: “Malta sui generis” (Latin for ‘of its own kind, in a class by itself’).

And indeed we are in a class of our own.

We deludedly see ourselves as the defenders of morality and life. Some of us even claim to have a better understanding of life than anyone else beyond our golden shores, including reputed doctors and scientists the world over.

We go as far as feeling morally entitled to criminalise people at different levels of need or even despair, be it women seeking advice about a forced or unwanted pregnancy, people with a drug problem or even those who try and fail to take their own lives. Indeed, we seem to think of ourselves as the last bastion of morality.

One such case was divorce, which we thankfully got to terms with amid much finger-pointing and doomsday predictions (none of which came true, of course).

Another topical case is emergency contraception. A lot has been said and written about the way this pill works, but that’s not what I would like to focus on here.

Let us just consider the situation in other European and non-European countries. A quick Internet search reveals that nearly all EU countries (including countries that are not at all in favour of abortion, like Ireland) sell emergency contraception over the counter; the remainder (Greece, Hungary, Poland and Romania) make it available upon medical prescription.

Non-EU countries also make this contraceptive available. They include Russia, Turkey, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Madagascar, Bolivia, Kenya, Morocco – the list is very long.

So why has Malta stubbornly refused to licence this drug? And why do some believe that its availability should go on being denied, even after women formally asked for it?

What this could be about is simply aprimitive, irrational and unjustified fear of change

Why is it that countries like the UK make it available to all women – including girls under 16, in an effort to curb teenage pregnancies – while Malta expects even its youngest, including victims of rape, to go through the pain and anxiety of an unwanted pregnancy and motherhood? What good is this situation doing to our much-flaunted ‘moral fibre’?

You may ask why we should feel compelled to copy other countries (a strange question, since we copy others in virtually any other field, including election campaign songs). But I would suggest a different question: on which grounds do we choose not to comply with international standards? What is it that we think we have understood that everyone else supposedly fails to grasp?

Before taking such stances, perhaps we should collectively (and apolitically) consider that what this could be about is simply a primitive, irrational and unjustified fear of change.

After all, we live in a patriarchal society, where women are bullied into keeping mum (no pun intended) about most things, including those that matter most to them, like their own bodies and feelings.

The Women’s Rights Foundation has launched a healthy debate on a very basic right, one that does not interfere with life in any way but simply grants women a choice during that short time frame when a choice is medically available in non-abortifacient form. That’s what the morning-after pill does.

The time has come for women to unite and for men to stop fearing the emancipation of their wives, partners and colleagues. This is 2016. It is high time we all understood that there can be no progress in this country as long as the rights of women are trampled upon.

We represent 50 per cent of the population and we vote. And we shall not give up. Decades ago, women elsewhere faced this hypocrisy and bigotry too; they campaigned, fought and won.

If Malta wants to be unique, it should try doing so by setting an example in terms of the respect for human rights – all human rights, not just a chosen few.

Irene Mangion has worked for social justice NGOs in Malta and abroad.

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