True.

My father would not have done everything possible to get us back. He would have done everything possible to get my mother back. He would not have taken us without her.

You overlook the most screamingly obvious thing here: this woman ran away from a life of supposed riches and comfort with just the clothes on her back, her child and their passports. And to do so, she waited until Busuttil was in the shower and literally escaped.

Would your wife need to wait until you were locked in the bathroom to run away? I imagine she would have no problem walking out in front of you.

That woman was ill treated, and worse than that, she was tightly controlled. She didn’t ‘abduct her child’. She escaped and took her child with her.

There are many women in her situation in Malta. The difference is that they are Maltese and don’t have another country to escape to. So they escape to shelters run by the nuns and social services, or to friends and family. And the men from whom they flee tend to be of a type: overly concerned with their image and very keen to be admired and thought ‘a nice man’ by strangers and friends.

But isn’t it abominable too for a mother to run away with her child whilst abroad?

I don’t know what the woman had to endure but let’s not make out all women to be saints and all men devils. As you said, the last thing your father would have done would be to hunt down your mother but let us for a minute suppose that your mother did in fact just up and leave with you in tow, your father would not have just let her go if he loved you.

He would do everything possible to get you back, and if someone has abducted your child there is not many ways to do it but to hunt down the perpetrator. The mother might have a million reasons for doing it but we cannot accept this behaviour as otherwise anyone can abduct a child as long as she is a woman.

My father would NEVER have treated my mother that way. She would never have had cause to run away and even if she did, the last thing he would have done is hunt her down and take us away to punish her.

My moral values are clear in these matters because I had good teachers. In these matters there are no grey areas. Busuttil’s behaviour is ABOMINABLE and there is no justification for it.

Of course I side with her because I am a woman. It takes a woman to know what women have to endure in this chauvinistic society. The fact that you are a good husband and father should not blind you to the fact that many of the men you know are anything but, and that the women are doing their best to survive.