Monday, January 19, 2009

Self Defense

I and a few other Muslim sisters went to a self-defense demonstration a few days ago, and I was pretty impressed by the instructor. She has over 30 years experience in martial arts and is proficient in 13 different martial arts. She has formulated her own style called natural-do and is focused on practical self defense techniques, including changing your attitude and psyche so you won't be seen as an easy target.

She showed how simple everyday items like keys and credit cards can be used to defend yourself, the card for example can be swiped swiftly across the attackers eyes of below their nose, keys can be used to jab their eyes. She showed that we should not show fear in our voice and we should shout and scream. If someone tries to kidnap you, do not under any circumstances willingly go with them to another location, your chances of escape on their territory is slim to none, and they rarely leave their victims alive these days

She gave her experiences of being attacked and abused and gave some statistics of how prevalent abuse is from men the women know very well. She demonstrated some techniques that prove you don't have to be physically strong to outwit and overcome an attacker. I am super excited about attending classes with her, she has female only classes and is gonna give our group a discount price :)

Muslim wonen, or rather women in general need to know how to defend ourselves. In my community there were a spate of kidnappings and rapes a few months ago and everyone was pretty much scared to be out and about. We can't be prisoners of fear, I think its a good idea that we Muslim women learn some sort of self defense, because we never know if we might be targeted for robbery or attack because we are women, or because we are Muslim.

May Allah Subhana wa ta'ala protect us all , Ameen !

4 comments:

  1. Assalam-alaikam,
    This sounds like a great course. I have always been a big believer that Muslim women, or any women, should learn how to defend themselves and be able to leave their homes without being scared.
    I can't wait till my girl is old enough for us both to go to karate classes - I have always been adamant that my daughter will never be an easy target.

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  2. Wa alaikum salaam, yes I agree, karate is always a good skill to have , both for physical fitnes and for self defense.

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  3. I took Boxing classes few years ago! I think it's great to know at least how to defend yourself when attacked. You never know what can happen....

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  4. Wow, Boxing, that sounds great, and fun :)

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