Self-defence training against gender-based violence

The complete country was shaken to the core after three consecutive cases of rape and sexual violence came to light very recently. In line with the records of Ain O Shalish Kendro, even amidst the ongoing corona pandemic, 975 rape cases were reported, among which 43 of were victims to femicide, while 12 survivors committed suicide between January to September. There have been around 204 reported cases of a rape attempt. The epidemic of this unspeakable violence hits hard each and every time we consider it.

You will find a lot to be achieved to reach a long-term solution to the problem. This includes law reform, stricter implementation, introducing sex education as part of the national curriculum and many more. While these ought to be along with the priority list, additionally it is necessary to develop an improved knowledge of self-defence and awareness since every tool will probably be worth having if it could protect you from violence. Today we speak about several programmes which can help you to get the right direction to start it.

Warrior Woman Bangladesh by KO Fight Studio

KO Fight Studio was one of the firsts to have launched a course particularly dedicated to self-defence back in September, 2017. This two-month-long course is exclusively made for women who are unable to commit to permanent training. Abdullah Mohammad Hossain, founder of KO Fight Studio said, "In this programme, we mainly give attention to strength-training of women, increasing stamina and endurance and focusing on techniques. I don't personally believe learning a few tricks and techniques help that much because real-life situations are pretty unpredictable. You can't ever guess the way you can be attacked, no-one can tell you the proper directions to manage the situation on that spot and your response has to result from your reflex. What we do is to help you condition your body parts through which you respond to the problem. We aim to prepare you to fight under any circumstances."

Warrior Woman Bangladesh will be starting the course with its tenth batch from November 2020. Interested ones can go to KO Fight Studio's Facebook page to get enrolled by paying the costs via bKash. All the necessary instructions receive before the classes with a group messenger thread with all enrollees. Classes are held on Friday and Saturday, followup instructions for the rest of the week are also given via the messenger thread. 

"Usually we don't admit more than 20 people in each batch. You want to expand this project and make it accessible to schools and colleges, RMG staff and ladies in the most remote areas of the country. 

WW Academy: Online self-defence courses

Wander Woman is a community exclusively dedicated to female travel enthusiasts from Bangladesh, which formed the WW Academy in October 2019 intending to train women with the key skills (self-defence, swimming and such) needed while travelling. "In 2019, we made a trip to Tanguar Haor with several girls from Wander Woman and were harassed by an NGO worker. Locals urged us to take file complaints to the police, but we were outnumbered by the NGO team therefore didn't want to take the chance. When we returned to Dhaka, I took legal actions against the perpetrator. However, this made me wonder how women feel unsafe in virtually any the main country, and I made a decision to launch a self-defence programme under WW Academy", said Sabira Mehrin, founder of Wander Woman.

WW Academy launched a self-defence course partnering with Titans Academy, and trained 10 girls by December 2019. Later on, in 2020, the response because of this project wasn't needlessly to say, so the WW team started rethinking the model they designed. "Meanwhile, the pandemic took over, so we put the programme on hold because we weren't sure just how many people would join online workshops. When I ran across the Begumgunj incident earlier this month, it shook me to the core. That's when it occurred if you ask me that we can offer free self-defence classes online via WW Academy. We created a simple registration form that requires the name of the enrollee and her contact information. By the finish of the day, we'd around seven thousand women who registered for the course", said Sabira.

"Self-defence is not only about fighting, it's about learning techniques and tactics in order to avoid certain situations, and that is something I wanted to help make the women understand. I really believe this a survival tactic that all of us need, irrespective of our genders and ages", she added.

Titans Academy is partnering with WW Academy upon this project, along with three more instructors. Every weekend there is likely to be an orientation session by different instructors, with 500 enrollees per session. WW Academy will be keeping touching them by launching a newsletter to have them linked with any programmes that the instructors launch in the future. To control this huge capacity, the organisation has partnered with Adorn&Co, Alpha Catering, Edith, Romoni and Luminous Artisity by Lazina Elma.

When asked about the near future plans of the WW Academy, Sabira said, "We are also likely to launch some exclusive programmes if enough people are interested and so are continuously dealing with our partners for that. After that, we want to work with pre-teens and sex education under parental supervision. We also want to work with RMG workers, slum-dwellers and persons residing in the rural remote regions of the united states by building a community hub partnering with different NGOs. We try to do something sustainable and get in touch with more women across the country."

Organisations like Black Belt Academy, Bangladesh Karate Do and others are also offering different self-defence courses that are worth checking out.