The state’s irrationality about women murders

This is the second time I am writing about Ümmühan Şen.

The first time she was the target of four bullets but she remained alive by pure chance.

After that interview, her dry cleaning shop was robbed. The thief who was caught confessed that he was asked to commit this crime by Ümmühan’s former husband. Apparently they shared the same prison cell and he accepted to rob the shop in exchange for money. 

What is striking here is that because the divorce has not yet taken place, the officials said there was nothing to be done. “There cannot be a theft among family. He is your husband. Even if he robs the shop, that does not count as theft.”

Don’t look for logic, for there is none.

Just as there is none when she went to the police and said, “He will kill me… He is beating me… Protect me...” She was told “Come when he does so…”

There is no logic in that as well.

God saved Ümmühan, not the state. She stayed alive after four bullets. But she does not know what she will do. 

When he is released, the state has told her to “flee.”

It is unbelievable.  If she is killed, who will be held accountable?

Everything started when she asked for divorce

I asked her to explain all. “Because I told him I wanted divorce. But he said, ‘This is not over until I say it is over,’ and shut me away.”

But why did she want to leave? “He was a psychopath.  He was a liar. He said he had four children and that he married once [before] and had a divorce. But apparently, he has 8 children, several marriages and extramarital relations. His whole life was a lie. And he kept beating me. I suffered in the course of the two years that we stayed married.”

In short she was shut away because it was she who decided to separate, not him. 

I asked why she did not go to the police when he threatened her. 

“Of course I went to the police. And how many times! But they told me, ‘Come after he takes action.’”

It seems she needs to die for him to be sentenced. 

“I swear this is the situation. I told them ‘This man is going to kill me. I am under tremendous danger. He beats me savagely.’ I told the police that he tried to burn the house that he pulled a gun on my 15-year-old daughter. But the police did not take it into consideration. They kept saying, ‘There is not much we can do.’ Then I got four bullets and it is God who protected me, not the state.”

The doctors told her that it was a miracle that she had lived. But they did not give her hope. On the contrary, they even told her she might not walk again. “Thank God, I only have a problem with my right arm; it is not very functional. My lungs hurt when I cough. But I am still alive.”

What happened afterwards was that he was sentenced to 12 years and 8 months in prison.
I asked her when he will be released.

“That’s the problem. What I am being told is this: He will spend 2 years in high security prison. Then the rest will be in an open prison. Three months are left for the termination of the first two years. In the open one, they get released one day per week. And if they run away, apparently they don’t do much. I am finished!”

Will he still be a threat to you when he gets out?

“Of course. This time he will not let me live. He keeps sending me letters each week. Sometimes, two a day. He says he will come back and he says our family should go on, that we should reunite. I never want anything like that. He says he will kill me if I don’t accept it. His family threatened me; they said I should not insist on the legal case. They forced me to say what happened was an accident. But I did not surrender.”

Her trials continue

Her husband tried to hurt her while in prison too. He asked his prison cell mate to rob her shop. But he did not suffer any consequence, as they were still married. 

“It is not my fault if I am married to him. For two years, they did not let me divorce the man who tried to kill me. I could only get a divorce a short while ago.”

In this case, what we understand from this situation is that the state protects the family, not women.

“They want me to go away. I have lived here for years; my job is here, my shop is here. Why aren’t they doing anything to him while telling me to run away? Why should I run away? I did not do anything; I am not a criminal. That really hurts me.”