SheFighter, a women’s only gym in Khalda, Jordan, is teachng women to empower themselves physically and mentally via dedicated self-defense training.
Lina Khalifeh, founder of SheFighter, began offering her services as a martial arts instructor after discovering that one of her colleagues was being physically abused by a domineering brother. Since then she has guided over 3,000 women to be able to stand up for themselves in the ring, on the streets or wherever someone dares underestimate their power.
SheFighter's success has been enormous and they are getting noticed. Just last year the initiative was honoured in a speech by US President Barack Obama. The founder, Lina, has been specifically recruited to deliver talks at the European Parliament, the Global One Young World Summit and the UN.
Lina’s approach to empowerment is bold in a world where women are often taught to dissociate themselves from notions of possessing power, especially physical power. Lina’s efforts are all the more poignant given that her home, Jordan, along with its geographic neighbours in the Middle East, are often criticised for what is perceived as their "backwards" or repressive attitude towards women and women’s rights.
But it's not just the region Lina is from. Who remembers ‘10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman’? The video that shed crucial light on the heckling experiences of the female commute across metropolitan streets. The woman at the center of the film's journey through town, which was discretely captured on video, was plagued by disrespectful, cat-calling males. Seemingly it was beyond the capacity of those men to treat an unknown female with the basic human respect due to her. Instead, they chose to prioritise their desire for sexual gratification ahead of her right to comfort and security as she walked down the street. The video’s effect was to capture the experiences of ordinary women everywhere who endure unwanted sexual harassment on a daily basis.
I wonder though, if women in their droves were able to float like butterflies and sting like bees, whether those men that harass, intimidate and belittle females without fear of reprisal, would continue to act quite so boldly. The SheFighter initiative is helping to counter the false tenet that femininity equates to vulnerability. Lina and her team are teaching a new generation of women to be fighting fit in mind and body, well equipped to challenge a global society that is all too often unfairly balanced.