A short article on domestic violence against women in the United States mentioning the case of Susan Still on “The Oprah Winfrey Show”
It is a bitter truth that even today, one out of four women is a sheer victim of domestic violence caused by her husband in the U.S.A. Most of the wives remain mute and frightened to raise their voices against the brutal physical and mental torture by their husbands whom they use to love and consider to be their best emotional supports. These women deserve a far better fate than this in their lives. Losing self-respect, dumb-toleration of inhuman atrocities, and forgetting about one’s own self are not good for any woman. It is a dark stigma on both humanity and society as well. So, for every woman who has been suffering from this hellish experience, it is high time for them to make a proper plan first to get rid of it permanently.
To these suffering- wives, Susan Still can really be an idol. The love marriage of Susan and Ulner Lee Still occurred in 1989. But after some years, she had lost all freedom and had to follow Ulner’s decision blindly. Ulner blamed her always for everything. He had an utterly suspicious mind and recorded her all activities. Ulner started abusing his wife Susan verbally initially. But after a decade it had been transformed into a violent torturing both physically and mentally for her. This kind of incident always ran behind closed doors and also in front of their two sons.
One Sunday afternoon in 2003 Ulner started beating Susan in front of his two sons and even brainwashed their 13-year-old son Dazmann to make a video of this torture. Susan’s husband brutally insulted her during the first 40 minutes of the video, he called her “STUPID” 23 times and “HEIFER” 28 times. He also addressed her with other dehumanizing names in that horrifying video. The humiliation was continued and followed by punches, and kicks, on her for another ten minutes. Finally, on that day Susan decided to leave him to get rid of this perpetual torture. She made a plan and took the help of the State’s Law Department and lodged a complaint against Ulner.
Lisa Bloch Rodwin was the prosecutor who fought the case for Susan and Ulner had been found guilty and was sentenced to jail for 36 years. Her co-worker Lane helped her greatly to make the plan and to gather strong documentary evidence against Ulner.
After 4 years, Susan disclosed her agonizing past in “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and also shared how her life had been changed from hell to heaven. From this show, Susan and the anchor of this show Oprah Winfrey made sincerely try to convey their precious messages to all the depressed wives to make a plan and to find a proper way to live a free life with their offspring (if any) independently with full of respect and free from any fear and exploitation. They requested all the victimized- wives of the society like Susan to take help in such situations by dialing 800-799-SAFE, the helpline number of the National Domestic Violence Hotline from their areas.
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