[attach id="520125" size="medium"]Opposition leader Simon Busuttil.[/attach]

Domestic violence was still very present in society and the problem should not be swept under the carpet, Opposition leader Simon Busuttil is insisting.

Domestic violence was not often spoken about, and the issue needed to be tackled out in the open. Women in such situations needed the tools to fight this injustice, he said during a conference organised by the PN’s women forum and Iswed fuq l-Abjad.

“What is the greatest injustice, if not silent women, locked up at home experiencing continuous violence?… And then, when these women turn to the authorities, they are made to believe that they are wasting their time,” Dr Busuttil said, adding that not being able to find support was a great injustice.

“This is where we have to start from, if we are to speak about equality between men and women,” the PN leader said.

His comments came a few days after the grim discovery of the corpse of Eleanor Mangion Walker, mother of a nine-year-old girl. Two days later, two 48-year-olds were released on bail after being charged over separate, unrelated incidents of domestic violence.

Dr Busuttil was speaking at a conference on female participation in politics, where he said that those in decision-making positions had to lead by example.

The PN had undergone a radical transformation when it came to female participation. The statute had been changed to include a clause stating that election results had to reflect an equal share of male and female participants, he said.

The Opposition leader expressed hope that there will come a time when equality became the norm, and not something that had to be continuously fought for.

Unfortunately, he added, Malta had recently slipped down the index of the World Economic Forum’s 2015 Global Gender Gap Report.

Malta – which dropped 15 places last year – ranked 104 out of 145 countries, surpassed by countries like Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic, Zimbabwe and Kazakhstan.