Self Defense for Indian Women

By Peter Aronson on Monday, August 24, 2009.

They may not talk about it much, but Indian women know that violence against women is rampant in their country. The perpetrators are not just strangers on buses, streets and in fields, but also fathers, uncles, husbands and even sons. With hardly anyone to turn to, some women are learning how to stand up for themselves. Women are training other women in self defense — in secret, behind closed doors. From northern India, the World Vision Report's Peter Aronson gives us an inside look.

(Photo by jaroslavd via Flickr/Creative Commons)

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I enjoyed this piece on women in India studying self defense. The right to defend oneself is arguably the most basic human right and it is great that these women are taking responsibility for their own safety.

I study combatives which is basically martial arts without pajamas or Asian philosophy. Through this study I became aware of Melissa Soalt (aka "Dr. Ruthless) and her outstanding women's self defense tape "Fierce and Female".

I've also met her partner Mike Haynack (he plays the really ugly woman in the bathroom scene on the video), who told me that of the several thousand women that he and Melissa have trained, 40-50 reported back that they had been attacked subsequent to taking the training. All were able to defend themselves and in nearly half the cases the attacker was still on the ground when the police responded.

By some strange coincidence, I got an email from Melissa recently (I'm on her email list, though not otherwise affiliated with her) relating a trip that she and Mike took to India. While I'm not familiar with the techniques that the Indian women in the piece were taught (actually I've never heard of the school mentioned in the piece), but if it is anywhere near as good as Melissa's material they will do well if ever called upon to defend themselves.

Submitted by Hal Foster on Mon, 08/24/2009 - 14:06.
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