Thanks to martial arts, girls can take care of themselves

Any parent finds cause, now and then, to wonder at the lives of their children. How times have changed! It's not always a matter of electronic gadgets; as easily new outside activities can surprise. In Kushtia there are many parents who have watched a positive transformation in their daughters since martial arts training came to town.

“It was beyond my thinking,” says Kabir Uddin of Paharpur village in Mirpur upazila. “Why would my daughter learn martial arts and how could it help her?” His daughter Keya Khatun is a Class VIII student at Paharpur-Lakkhipur High School.

“But now I realise,” Kabir continues, “I've seen the change in her. How many times has she told me that if she ever has to face any tricky situation, she is ready?”

Martial arts tuition has helped not only Keya, who has to walk 2 kilometres to school each day, to gain self-confidence. Girls of the 20 schools participating in the programme have developed a heightened sense of security at home or school or on the street, finding that safety is to a greater degree in their own hands.

The 400 students aged 10 to 15 and including students from the most remote villages, learn basic martial arts techniques that can be useful in any untoward situation. The programme arranged by Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha as part of the Safe School, Safe Community initiative funded by the UN trust fund to end violence against women is now in its third year.

“I've learnt some jujutsu moves,” says a proud Keya, referring to the martial art originally developed in feudal Japan as a means of combat for defeating armed samurais.

“It's changed the way I feel,” she adds. “The fact that I know what to do if I ever face a bad situation makes me feel better, even if it is mostly mentally.” At Keya's school, 20 girls are enrolled in the martial arts classes.

Martial arts trainer Md Alauddin says the training isn't only focused on defence but also on minimising the possibility of assault and needing to engage in physical confrontation in the first place. “With this training almost anybody can learn practical self-defence in a fairly short time frame,” he says, “without needing to become an expert fighter.”

Teachers, parents and villagers alike have come to appreciate the classes and more particularly the newfound confidence it has instilled in the girls. “Our students were interested to learn it,” says the headmaster of Keya's school Zihad Ali Khan, “so we let them.”

Local union parishad member Hamidul Islam also sees benefit in the training. “I hope it can increase the girls' sense of security and their ability to protect themselves from realistic threats such as street assaults, kidnapping, rape or other menace.”

The training is also appreciated by veteran writer and leading intellectual Dr. Rashid Askari who is a professor of English in Kushtia Islamic University. However, he believes other measures such as improved policing and better protection for victims in the legal system are also needed in order to properly combat sexual violence in Bangladesh.

Indeed the UN trust fund initiative under which the martial arts training falls also has a broader focus that involves teaching 8,000 schoolgirls about gender and legal issues, their rights and the types of oppression they can face.

Nowadays well-established, as can happen with many initiatives, the programme did face some opposition in its early days, especially from the more religious minded. “We took the time to inform everybody of the positive sides of the programme,” says district coordinator Hasan Iqbal Rasel, who says that these days the programme is broadly accepted.

Regardless, schoolmates Keya, Afroza, Samia, Shanta and the rest of the martial arts class are enthusiastic, happy to know more about their rights in society and in the country, and well-satisfied with the basic martial arts techniques they've mastered.