Zeynep Akın/JINHA

NEWS CENTER - According to Z.E., a woman who fled an abusive marriage, women's security of life in state-run shelters in Turkey is severely imperiled.

Recently, several women have been killed in Turkey despite having received court orders for their protection. Women who have appealed to protection orders and state women's shelters as their only escape from the violence of the family say that the state repeats the violence.

"If a woman can be killed in the middle of the street when she has an order for her protection, the party responsible is not the killer or the victim; it's the state," said Z.E. "I have a protection order, but it's just a piece of paper sitting in my bag."

Z.E. was forced to marry at the age of 12 in order to pay her brother's gambling debts with the bride price given to her family. Soon after being sexually abused under the banner of "marriage," Z.E. started to be physically abused by her husband.

By the age of 20, Z.E. had two children, one four and one five. She fled the violence to her family's house. Their response was to tell her to return to her husband. Her family is still prepared to kill her on the spot if they see her.

Z.E. turned to the state women's shelter, euphemistically called a "guest house." But the response there was the same one her family gave her. "They told me 'go back, you're the one at fault,'" she recalled. Directors at the shelter told her she had made mistakes in her life and needed to make peace with her family.

"It's no different from a prison," she said. "There's no phone, no television, no food to speak of. All the women there came without a thing to their name. These are people who came with just the clothes on their back." However, the shelter provides no services to help women get back on their feet, according to Z.E. One of the directors' favorite slogans: "this isn't a hotel."

Z.E. was kicked out of the shelter because it closed at 9 p.m. and the only job she could find ended at 10. She stayed for several days in the nursing room of the hospital. Fearing for her life, she has sent her children to a children's dormitory. She is unsure when she will be able to see them again. Z.E. said few women were able to last long in the women's shelters.

"I'm struggling with life," she said. "I just can't see the way out. But I don't want police, I don't want 'guesthouses,' I don't want soldiers or any of it."

(gc/fk/cm)