The girls with clenched fists and courage
It was not too long ago that this correspondent reported an incident of violence against her 16-year-old college-going cousin, who was beaten up with sandals by some stalkers in a village market, where hundreds of bystanders watched without protesting.
After that incident, the teenager even attempted to take her own life, unable to tolerate such public humiliation.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Last May, 13-year-old Shamima Akter from Rajshahi's Paba upazila found herself in a similar situation, but with a different twist.
The student of Baya High School and College was on her way home from coaching centre when some local young men started passing lewd comments at her, even though she repeatedly asked them to stop.
What happened next was hardly what the harassers were prepared for.
Shamima, who had started taking Karate and Wushu lesson only a couple of weeks before, started kicking and punching the harassers until they ran away from the scene.
Like Shamima, a total of 145 girls aged 11-16 from remote villages of five districts --Rajshahi, Rangpur, Mymensingh, Barishal and Sunamganj -- were given a six-month self-defence training from May to October under the Shahosh (courage) initiative by World Vision Bangladesh.
"I had not learned all the moves by then, but, when they realised that I knew karate, they ran away immediately. This actually proves how effective self-defence is," said Shamima.
"Since that incident, everyone started calling me 'Karate-man' and stopped harassing me and my friends, for good," she added.
Shamima and the 59 other girls from Rajshahi are now preparing themselves for their first karate belt test. A number of girls from Rangpur have already earned the yellow, orange and green belt. The general order of karate belts is white, yellow, green, blue, brown and black.
"An overwhelming majority of them have the quality to play in the national team and earn a medal. If they can be trained for a few more months, they can easily earn a black belt," said Ruma Akter, the key female coach of Rajshahi's Shaolin Wushu Tai Chi Kung Fu Academy of Shahmukhdum.
Md Zahidul Kabir, national coordinator of the Social Inclusion and Policy Analysis Programme of World Vision Bangladesh, opines that girls should be taught martial arts to establish the fact that women are not a weak gender.
"It is not like that the girls will defeat the boys every time through beating. Rather, it is more about changing society's outlook towards girls that they are not weak and they know how to protest," said Zahidul.
"Besides, karate is not all about self-defence. Rather, it boosts the confidence of girls and helps them grow stronger, both mentally and physically," he added.
Eighth-grader Shapla Biswas of Baya High School and College, said the training has made her feel more empowered and helped her develop high self-esteem.
"Now, my parents don't feel insecure when I am out of the house. The villagers respect us when we go to the karate class wearing our uniform," she said.
But the transformation was not so easy. A number of girls shared that, initially, their parents were reluctant to send them to the classes as they had to practise with boys.
"Many people of my area found it unacceptable that boys will mingle with us, which will be perceived negatively during our marriage," said Urmi Akter, a ninth-grader of Pranpur Girls High School, Tanore, Rajshahi.
"Many of them directly came to our house and forbade us from going to the karate class. They would say 'you are a girl, what is the use of learning such a thing since you will be married off soon'," she recounted.
However, after the first phase of karate lesson, more and more mothers are sending their daughters to learn martial arts, defying social obstacles.
When sixth-grader Tonwee Minj received a minor wound on her nose during practice in the first week, many from her village tried to convince her mother that such injuries leaving permanent mark would apparently create problems during Tonwee's marriage.
"But I never told my daughter to stop practising, because I knew, at the end of the course, it will bring more positivity to her life," said Tonwee's mother Laxmi Minj, a homemaker.
Apart from teaching the techniques for combating gender-based violence, the Shahosh initiative has also been engaging boys from the localities with trainings on positive masculinity. The Shahosh Boys Group are learning the concept of gender, recognising violence and understanding their role in preventing it.
Currently, World Vision Bangladesh is aspiring to extend the initiative in Dhaka, Nilphamari and Sherpur, and train a total of 280 girls in eight districts.
"We believe that not only girls, every adolescent should learn the techniques of self-defence and like many other countries, martial arts should be included in the physical education syllabus in our national curriculum in the secondary schools," said Zahidul.
He said self-defence will help adolescents have greater self- discipline and grow up to be responsible citizens.
According to Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK)'s data, a total of 1,413 women were either gang-raped or subjected to rape last year and of them 76 were killed after rape and 10 others died by suicide. But experts believe that this represents only the tip of the iceberg since most incidents of sexual violence go unreported out of fear of further harassment.
In such a dark and dire time, don't we need more and more girls like Shamima or Shapla? Perhaps a clenched fist is the best weapon to defend oneself in every violent situation.
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