A few weeks ago I read an article in The Guardian bearing this title. It referred to the murder of brave Qandeel Baloch in Pakistan, yet I could not help but think that it applies perfectly well to Maltese society. On a different level perhaps, but still.

I would have never thought that my country could be so backwards as to drag a debate on something as innocuous as the morning-after pill into the abyss of medieval bigotry. Sometimes I leaf through the papers and feel I’m watching a rerun of Life of Brian.

I feel ashamed. Ashamed that so many men in my country still think they get to decide what my rights as a woman are, that they fail to see that these rights are already enshrined in international conventions and declarations Maltese governments have signed and ratified. I am also ashamed that a few women have been so brainwashed by this patriarchal society that they support such bullies.

Even more worrying is the fact that there are doctors and pharmacists who think they can have ‘an opinion’ about facts. There is no way anyone can have an opinion about whether it is Earththat revolves around the sun or the other way round. That fact has been established. If you disagree, you need to bring valuable scientific proof to the table, or else accept to be considered misinformed, biased or worse.

Emergency contraception is a case in point. Not a day passes without there being an opinion article, penned by a man, telling women what to think and how to behave. Teaching us what it means to be a woman and bear children. Accusing us of not caring about the rights of the child and only wanting to be ‘trendy’, have fun and ultimately be as promiscuous as men are.

We have to bear with men who pontificate about when life begins and what morality means. They tell us that women should suffer in silence rather than seek concrete solutions. They say that if we really have to resort to emergency contraception, then we should pay €274 to buy pills made for completely different purposes but that have the same effect as the €20 morning-after pill. (How does that even make sense?)

There are doctors and pharmacists who think they can have ‘an opinion’ about facts

We have to wade through heaps of scientific blunders and inaccuracies put forward by Gift of Life and similar organisations with no credentials or expertise, but that somehow seem to believe the government should value their opinion as highly as that of the head of obstetrics at Mater Dei or Princeton University.

We are exposed to protests by some pharmacists who believe they can object to selling contraceptives. Yet in 2001, the European Court of Human Rights held that pharmacists may not refuse to sell contraceptives based on their personal religious beliefs (Pichon and Sajous v. France, application no. 49853/99, decision of 2 October 2001). The morning-after pill is classified as a contraceptive.

I sometimes wonder what it is that the men-led, wrongly termed ‘pro-life’ movement wants. Does it want to prove that the morning-after pill can, in absolutely no way, ever lead to adverse effects and should be banned for that? Well, then we will need to ban practically all medicine, as well as salt, sugar, meat … Not to mention alcohol and cigarettes.

They all have proven adverse effects, way beyond anything ever imputed to the MAP. But I know that deep down this is not what they are after. What these pen and morality wielding men want is to retain the control over the ‘weaker sex’ that they have enjoyed for so long and still do, particularly in countries like ours.

Nearly every country under the sun makes this pill available in pharmacies and hospitals, in many cases without the need for a prescription. Studies prove that, in countries where it is freely available, emergency contraception has lowered teenage pregnancy rates, provided relief to victims of rape and also reduced the number of abortions sought.

Yet, in Malta, in 2016, we find leaflets in our letterboxes reading Il-morning-after pill: Ġenoċidju ta’ uliedna. I could not read any further for fear my eyes would bleed.

This debate should have ended months ago. A total 102 women filed a judicial protest, requesting the licensing of emergency contraception. The Medicines Authority chairman has repeatedly stated, in this newspaper, that the morning-after pill is not abortifacient. Proof of this has been presented to the Parliamentary Committee. None of our laws ban emergency contraception.

Over a month ago, a company filed an application to start importing this pill but here we are, still waiting. What for, we do not know.

Minister Helena Dalli, the chairman of the Medicines Authority, the Parliamentary Committee or whoever needs to give the green light: in the name of sanity, could you kindly spare this country more exposure to ignorance and bigotry and usher Malta into the 21st century?

As to the men writing obsessively about women’s rights, you need to understand a basic fact about life in society: you do not get to decide single handedly what other groups of people want, need and ought to do. If you want to go on having opinions about established facts, then leave them for your personal Facebook page.

And if you want to go on living in the Middle Ages, go ahead and turn your backs to science and progress. But do not drag those of us who want our country to move forward down with you.

Women do not need policing and you are not the morality police anyway. Government-appointed committees (or others, for that matter), should not act in that capacity either.

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