Malta inaugurated it's first International Men's Day in 1994 after Dr. John Zammit of the Association for Men's Rights learned of a group in Kanas U.S.A. who attempted to establish an early IMD event in the same year. Whilst the Kansas event was not held again, the Malta IMD event has continued uninterrupted yearly since 1994, making it the longest running local IMD observation in the world. Dr. Zammit said, "We celebrate the international men's day in Malta by organizing a dinner or lunch or reception for our members and also give a prize to certain members who do certain acts of bravery for our organization and men's rights. On one occation we honoured committee members for the removal of the impediment of departure which we had on men in separation/divorce cases. Before 1995 all men who had problems with their wives in Malta, be it Maltese or foreigners, could not leave the island while their case was still in court and so were imprisoned in Malta."
THE CHAMPIONS THAT REMOVED THE IMPEDIMENT OF DEPARTURE FROM MALTA
On every 1st October since 1995 we celebrate the removal of the impediment of departure after a campaign and pressure made by the Association for Men's Rights (Malta) by from left to right: John Caruana, Dr. John Zammit, Dr. Emmy Bezzina and Frans Carabott. We hope that Maltese men will appreciate what the AMR has done and support our cause to continue bringing more rights for men in certain difficult situations like it was before 1st October 1995 when men were asked not to leave the island even if they were going to work like in Libya, on drilling rigs, journalists, businessmen, travel agents etc. Many went bankrupt because of the impediment.
In one year the Association for Men's Rights organised an exhibition which included several books, newsletters from most men's organisations, including The Male Order from Malta, books (most of them donated from the collection from the Archives of Men at Michighan State University Library of USA which hold the largest collection on men's studies in the world), magazines, t-shirts and other items from most of the men's organisations of the world. The picture above shows a few of the exhibits.
The Maltese International Men's Day has traditionally been observed on February 7. As the February date is not celebrated by other participating countries and did not qualify as an internationally observed date, discussions were undertaken within the Maltese Association for Men's Rights and on Janurary 17 2009 the committee voted unanimously to shift their celebrations to November 19:
Association for Men's Rights January 19, 2009
Dr.-JohnpZammit President:pAssociationpforpMen'spRights 60A,pStraitpStreet,pVallettapVLTp1436,pMalta:pEurope
mensra@maltanet.net
Dear Jason,
Thank you for taking the initiative about the IMD. In fact we had a committee meeting yesterday Saturday 17th January 2009 and I told them about your correspondence and about moving our IMD to 19th November from this year (2009) to coincide with all the others around the world. All the committee agreed and so it was carried. So please you can announce that we are now the same as all the others. The article I have seen and read and you found a good photo, which I was going to send you one like it. On that website of our conference room at Valletta in fact there are other photos of our association's activities. Thanks again.
John Zammit
www.freewebs.com/mensrightsmalta
SOURCES:
Correspondence with Jason Thompson January 2009
Valletta Conference Room archive
Men's Rights Assciation News
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