Vancouver Province

VANCOUVER - Gurjeet Ghuman wants Indo-Canadian women never again to pay the price she paid to be free of an abusive marriage.

Six months ago, the 39-year-old mom had a good job at the Fraser Health Authority, lots of friends and was going through a divorce.

Today, she's blind after being shot twice point-blank in the head by her estranged husband, who then turned the gun on himself.

Wearing sunglasses and showing her beautiful smile, Gurjeet now feels she has a mission to help Sikh women.

In her first newspaper interview, Gurjeet told The Vancouver Province she wants to prevent more Indo-Canadian women from dying at the hands of their husbands.

Four other Sikh women have been murdered in B.C.'s Lower Mainland within the past six months.

"So many women have been killed since October in our culture. I was No. 2, I was the second one," she said, sitting on a couch at her brother's home in Surrey, B.C., a white cane by her side.

"Now is the time we can make a difference," she said. "It's absolutely disgusting what is happening right now. These women are getting killed."

"It's got to change, and it will, and I will try to help."

Gurjeet was born and raised in London and had an arranged marriage to Paramjit Singh Ghuman when she was only 21.

For 18 years, Gurjeet says, she was a quiet wife who was devoted to her two kids, son Kameron, now 15, and daughter Kara, 13.

Her husband Parm was verbally abusive, and never really loved her, she says. He had a girlfriend for years before they married and told her he was pressured into it.

Last summer, she asked for a divorce, and that's when things began to unravel.

In July, he tried to strangle her, which led to an assault charge, an order to stay away from her and a weapons ban.

Gurjeet moved out.

Then, on October 19, as she dropped Kara off at the family home in Port Coquitlam, B.C., Parm approached her car window and said he wanted to talk with her.

She rolled the window down, but he quickly unlocked the passenger door and got in.

Parm pulled out a gun and put it to her head. He told her to start driving.

She stopped the car and said she was getting out. She tried to unbuckle her seatbelt.

There was a struggle. She pushed his arm with her foot, and a bullet ripped through the window.

"I absolutely knew that he wanted to try to kill me," she said.

Then he overpowered her, pointed the gun directly at her - and shot her twice.

"I have no idea what happened after that," she said.

She only found out later that her husband then turned the gun on himself.

A bus driver kept her upright until paramedics arrived.

Gurjeet was in a coma for six weeks.

The doctors told her family she was going to die. Her skull had collapsed, and one bullet had severed her optical nerve.

Then one day, she just woke up. Slowly, she got back her voice, her legs and her mind.

Her memory is still foggy at times, and her emotions can run away with her.

But she knows in her heart that Sikh women need help.

"If they are not happy with that person, we have to get divorced," she said.

If they're behaving badly when you get married, you've got to divorce. If we're unhappy, even before we get married, don't even do it."

"Girls will make a decision for themselves. Girls never made a decision before. Now's the time to do that."

She knows clearly why she her husband tried to murder her.

"It was because I wanted a divorce. Big deal. Because I wanted a divorce, this is what he did."

"He put two bullets into my brain. One went straight through the brain itself, and one went through my eyes."

After an ordeal she describes as "horrific," Gurjeet feels that God has plans for her.

"It's amazing that I actually lived through this," she said.

"It's totally a miracle that I'm alive. The doctors were basically saying that Gurjeet is already dead. But look at me now."

Sitting beside her mom, Kara says it's good having mom back.

"It's good, but it's like hard to see her, 'cos she's blind and stuff. Looking at her makes me feel so sad. It's hard to deal with."

Gurjeet's brother, Bo Dhahan, 44, mentioned the trust fund for Gurjeet, which is still in place at Scotiabank. The account number is 01800 01024 15.

The goal is to have her debt-free.

Gurjeet is now learning braille, walking with a cane and waiting for a guide dog.

She's already listening to John Grisham books and has an iPod full of music.

Friends at Royal Columbian and Eagle Ridge hospitals put on a dinner for her Saturday night. She can't work there anymore. She can't drive.

She is changing her name back to her maiden name, Dhahan, and wants a home to look after her kids.

In a couple of weeks Gurjeet turns 40, and she has booked a trip back to the U.K. and an English pub.

"I went through a very difficult time. Yeah, absolutely difficult," she said. "I am on a journey."

"I think I'm better off than ever. Now I can truly, truly, truly be me. And I will."