Assume, being late from work. As the sun has set, the curtain of darkness is falling over everything around. Adding to the tension of reaching home, someone reminds that the last bus home has already left. All of a sudden, surroundings will start giving scary feels. After starting to walk towards destination in hope of getting a vehicle ahead, being followed by some evil men's shadows would be the last thing one could imagine. Now put a woman in this imaginary situation, things will feel like nightmarish. It is highly likely for women being attacked in such a situation. Isn't there a solution for such crisis moments? Answer is a simple 'yes' and it is within the women themselves-- learning self-defence.
Self-defence is a collection of intelligence, assertiveness, verbal confrontation abilities, protection strategies and physical techniques that enable someone to avoid, flee, resist, or even withstand any violent assault effectively. Each and every woman has to go through some sort of sexual harassment in their day-to-day lives. According to a Bangladesh-based human rights organisation Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), 907 women or girls have been raped in just the first nine months of 2020. While the entire world is busy fighting a pandemic that has taken so many lives, unfortunately, sexual violence has increased in Bangladesh's society. And as it is evidently and alarmingly clear that rape and sexual violence are showing no signs of decline despite strict laws, learning self-defensive techniques have become a necessity for the women. Women in Bangladesh are falling victims of sexual violence regardless of class and age. However, females aged between 13 and 18, according to the ASK report, are more likely to be the prey of an offender. Hence, learning self-defence strategies has become even more significant for this particular section.
The most important reason for females to choose self-defensive practices is to stay alert and be ready for any difficult situation. Martial arts is a form of self-defence that could be the best possible solution for them to learn how to defend the self from an attack. It teaches how to protect oneself by using body strength and instinctive moves in the least violent way possible. Apart from the self-defensive sides, it builds long-term mental strength as well which helps to boost the level of self-confidence. Having at least the preliminary knowledge of martial arts will allow women to attack instantly and defend any threat safely. Hence, learning to utilise different inherent weapons such as palms, elbows, feet, knees, head, basic kicks and punches will act as a shield against the unarmed attackers.
Acknowledging the current situation, numerous organisations and educational institutions including Volunteer for Bangladesh (VBD), Lal Sabuj Society (LSS), Wander Woman (WW) Academy, Flying Colours and many others have conducted several online and offline workshops on self-defence training. Many institutions are introducing regular martial arts classes especially for the girls.
During an interview, international martial artist Ms Ayesha Siddika who is a trainer at Bangladesh Taekwondo Association mentioned that women can do everything only if she dares. She also emphasised the need for protest that should come from the women themselves by stating, "Women are warriors by birth. They just need to prove and they just need to protest."
Ms Mahamuda Aktar Monisha, who has been learning 'Shotokan Karate' since 2016 and is a third Kyu "Brown Belt" winner, mentioned, "Even though the number of attendees in the class is small now, responses from the girls are great! They seem to be benefitting from the training. These girls are motivated by the entire prospect of learning self-defence."
Looking at the call of the hour, learning self-defensive tactics is as important as education. This strategy should be taught to girls from school level as a compulsory subject. Besides, every organisation should train its female workers as part of their job training. This form of learning should be state funded so that it is not limited to the privileged few. Women of all classes of society should be familiar with self-defensive mechanisms as it can reduce the harassment rate. Building self-confidence in physical resistance skills allows women to confront any injustice whether it is rape attempt, eve-teasing, or any other kind of abuse. The best thing about learning martial arts as a self-defensive strategy is that women will no longer be generalised as weak; rather toxic masculinity and victim blaming will be weakened itself.
With the favour of luck, one might reach home safely from the situation described in the beginning. But the perpetrator may not stop following. Tomorrow or day after tomorrow, he might come after again and for that day, one needs to be ready. Self-defence is not just a set of techniques, rather, this should be considered as a state of mind that begins with the belief that every woman can defend.
The writer is a student of Department of International Business at University of Dhaka who loves to create videos. She now spends most of her free time creating animation videos on YouTube - U N S P O K E N Animation Stories - portraying real life problems of ordinary people. She can be reached at kashafa.saira@gmail.com