LONDON — Walking down London streets, women abusers might mistaken Mahmuda Mazid for an easy prey. They should think twice because the 31-year-old mother is one of many Muslim women seeking self-defense in martial arts.
"In the classes I saw protection and self defense. That's what I needed," hijab-clad Mazid told Reuters on Thursday, May 3.
Like several veiled women who gather in a community centre in east London every week, she is learning how to defend herself through the ancient Japanese recipe for self-defense.
Mazid joined the classes, named Ninjapi after old Japanese Ninja warriors, after a gang tried to rob her teenage brother while she stood watching in a local park.
"There was this sheer feeling of helplessness that I couldn't help myself or my brother... and there was absolute rage," she recalled.
"I knew I had to do something to equip myself."
The course, organized by the Islamic Circles organization, aims to give women the tools to protect themselves from different kinds of attacks.
During the classes, over 30 Muslim women learn how to perform proper strikes and punches whenever needed.
"The ladies love the Ninjabi thing. It gives them a good giggle," said trainer Dee Terry, who also teaches Judo, Jujitsu and Kickboxing.
She believes that the women's Islamic dressing neither hinders their learning nor makes them any easier target for attackers.
"An attacker can pull your headscarf but they can also pull your hair, so Islamic clothes don't make that much of a difference."
Needed
Organizers insist the classes were a must given the recent surge in racist attacks targeting Muslim women.
"We had heard of increasing Islamophobia and other sorts of attacks on Muslim women," said Mizan Raja, a coordinator of the London-based Islamic Circles.
"Women were coming and asking for self-defense classes. It was a need."
Raja added that the Ninjapi courses are becoming popular.
"We could fill a class a day. It's totally oversubscribed," she said.
"It's about empowering Muslim women... We could do it throughout the country."
Attacks on Muslims in London, and across Britain, soared in the days after the 7/7 attacks in 2005.
Figures collated by London's Metropolitan Police, and presented in a report by the Muslim Safety Forum, showed 303 attacks in London in July 2005, up from 82 the previous month.
The attacks ranged from verbal abuse and vandalism of mosques to physical attacks, said Azad Ali, chairman of the forum.
He believes the real number is likely much higher due to the lack of agreed-upon criteria among the country's police forces for what constitutes an Islamophobic attack.
British Muslims, estimated at nearly two million, have been in the eye of storm since the 7/7 attacks, which killed 56 people, including four British Muslim bombers.
A Guardian/ICM poll has showed that one in five of those interviewed said they or a family member have faced abuse or hostility.
one of the main things i think women would get out of taking a course like this, is self-confidence.
i've found that many men simply cannot imagine what it is like to be a woman and how much less freedom you have than men. even sometimes when i was walking in the desert and some jeep came down the dirt road, i was always a little afraid and relieved when it passed. most women i know have had some negative experience with men.
one of the rewards of getting older, is that you become somewhat invisible! (of course musims have a degree of this even when young) but even then, it is never really safe to be in certain places. (i realize that it isn't for men either, but women are in more danger and more restricted).
if you live in an area where there are enough muslims, i would call around and see if you can find a woman instructor who would be willing to hold classes for women only. (actually, i think a lot of non-muslims would be happier in women-only classes too). and then one day some ninja muslimah can set up a business doing this.
each man thinks of his own fleas as gazelles
question authority
I know that you wont going to do this with a mixed class!
Be patient, there will be one day by new class for only females, InshAllah!
Fi Amani Allah
Bless!!
InshaAllah, but I hope it's before I need a hip replacement
Good idea Snake Legs! Ad advert in the local paper would be ideal. Though, I'm not sure mosques would have any idea where to begin. Let's see what happens inshaAllah.
I took tae kwon do classes too with my brother. So I got to practice on him... but to be 100% honest, there are some techniques I might use, but overall my first instinct would be to use my own method of fighting...I wouldn't have time to think of the many ways I could get out of the situation. And as we all know, if the dude has a gun, you're pretty much screwed unless you can somehow get the gun out of his hands. If he doesn't have a gun and you are able to hurt him though, then take a few steps back, throw your heels, say bismillah, and hope the darn thing will strike him in the eyes and run yourself down the street screaming "FIRE!!" 'cause apparently that word works better with people than screaming "HELP!!"
If all else fails, recite the shahada.
Besides, what happened to reciting the du'as before leaving your house and not leaving your house without a mahrem? Ah, being replaced by self defense classes.
Besides, what happened to reciting the du'as before leaving your house and not leaving your house without a mahrem? Ah, being replaced by self defense classes.
I thought we don't have to take a mahram with us unless we are going long distances? A bit hard to take my mahrams with me to uni lol.
You walk to uni?? I dunno, I can't relate, my bro and I go to the same school by car and the only time I go out is if I'm with my parents or something. If I walked, its a short distance so I'm pretty safe in my neighborhood either way.
I would think if any place is dangerous to the point where you would have to take self-defense classes its probably best to be with a group of girls or with a mahrem when you go out.
I would think if any place is dangerous to the point where you would have to take self-defense classes its probably best to be with a group of girls or with a mahrem when you go out.
True! but then again, criminals can lurk in safe places too.
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A bit hard to take my mahrams with me to uni lol.
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