The aditus foundation has released Burning Bikinis, a documentary exploring Malta’s feminist movement from the 1960’s till today.

The film engages with leading movement figures of this, honouring their contribution to human rights in Malta.

It draws the path from the legal and political invisibility of women to 2017, when the nation is still struggling to attribute to a woman’s mind and body the equal value, respect and freedom to those of a man, aditus said.

“Burning Bikinis invites Malta to consider those pressing issues that remain in the way of true equality between the sexes, and to mobilise itself against the forces that accept, encourage or perpetuate inequality.”

It takes a look at Malta’s feminist movement and praises it for its achievements, bravery and commitment.

It is co-produced by aditus and Subway Lab, with the support of Arts Council Malta and the US and German embassies

The foundation noted that the presence of women in Malta’s highest democratic institutions was alarmingly low: only 16 per cent of electoral candidates in 2013 were women, there was one female minister out of 14, nine female members of Parliament, and six female judges out of 23.

“The fact that Malta’s President is a woman is nothing more than a convenient statistic for some, but no real consolation for most. These figures are in sharp contrast to those showing female graduates outnumbering male ones, the proportion of female electoral candidates who get elected is far higher that it is for male colleagues, and girls’ overall exam performance exceeds that of boys,” it said.

For Women’s Day, being celebrated tomorrow, aditus urged political parties that will contest the next general elections to set a goal of increasing their number of female candidates.

Aditus recommended the introduction of quotas to ensure women candidates contesting general and local elections, with the longer-term view of such quotas being incorporated in Malta’s electoral legislation.