CONCEPT FOR WOMEN’S HOLISTIC SELF DEFENSE
By MCCC Hernandez
As of 12 March 2023
Just because I survived it doesn’t mean other women have to suffer the same way as well.
Global estimates by the World Health Organization indicate that about 1 in 3 women (35%) worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual violence from intimate partner or non-partner in their lifetime. In the Philippines, the National Demographic Health Survey 2017 released by the Philippine Statistics Authority revealed that 1 in 4 Filipino women, aged 15-49, has experienced physical, emotional or sexual violence from their husband or partner.
–https://pcw.gov.ph/18-day-campaign-to-end-vaw/
In the Philippines during the 2020 lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, authorities received an average of eight reports of sexual assault daily.
Violence against women, sexual harassment, domestic violence, stalking, rape – any one of these crimes can have a profound effect on the victim. Stalking alone impacts the physical and mental health of victims, causing depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and sometimes even leading to threats of physical harm. Not all victims survive. And not all survivors bounce back so easily without assistance.
Problem, meet solution.
It starts with the idea of women empowerment through holistic self defense. Self defense is more than just kicking a bad guy in the groin. That’s only the physical aspect. So far, there are eight (8) aspects to holistic self defense, as follows:
1) Physical Self Defense
2) Street Smart Mindset
3) Psychological Resilience
4) Legal Education & Assistance
5) Economic Self Sufficiency
6) Good Health
7) Community Disaster Preparedness
8) Societal Reintegration for Survivors
I will explain each element further:
How many of the above statistics are violence by strangers versus violence by a present or past partner? Physical self defense is a tool of last resort, but it is vital to surviving, should all preventive measures fail.
A street-smart mindset helps avoid danger. An example is when you see a creepy guy while you’re walking down the sidewalk. You can cross the street to avoid him if you recognize that your intuition is telling you he seems dangerous. It’s a means to avoid confrontation, to avoid the possibility of violence through situational awareness and appropriate actions. Also, the warning signs of predators and criminals should be more known. Predators seek out the vulnerable, isolate them from those who can point out the red flags, and try to make their victims solely dependent on them. Terrible things happen after that.
Before or after something happens, we need psychological resilience – whether through strengthening your ability to say NO when needed, or through learning to cope with and recover from the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other similar conditions that result from trauma and encounters with violence and crime.
Women victims – or women survivors, rather – need to be able to easily find the legal resources they need. When I had a stalker, the Public Attorney’s Office could not represent me in fighting him in the courts because I earned too much, yet I couldn’t find a list of lawyers versed in resolving conflicts caused by this grey area of harassment. Legal advice and assistance – without the added prejudice and trauma of victim-blaming – should be easily available for survivors of VAWC.
Economic self-sufficiency is vital to freeing women from dangerous situations in which they are dependent upon abusive partners or placed in dangerous situations. A woman would avoid walking home in dark alleys late at night if she didn’t need the overtime pay to save up for a better future for her and her loved ones. Livelihood programs and academic or training scholarships can address this.
Good health falls in line with economic self-sufficiency. Without good health, you cannot physically defend yourself, nor can you make decisions independently with financial and medical considerations so daunting ahead of you.
Community disaster preparedness steps outside the individual. A community should be able to protect its people from harm, and keep them safe from exploitation. In the aftermath of calamities that destroy homes and communities, women are subjected to greater dangers than men in terms of exploitation and rape. Even desperation borne of hunger could force a woman to put herself in harm’s way to get vital necessities for herself and her loved ones. This should never happen, not if we have the resources in better times to prepare for the bad weather that strikes the Philippines on a regular basis. Disaster preparedness when done individually is dependent on one’s economic self-sufficiency and can be unbalanced. But disaster preparedness as a community can help those who need safety nets to survive. It is a failure of the community when disasters and crime make victims of their people – when they could have done something to prevent or stop it. And who wants to be the bad samaritan who witnessed a crime or disaster harm their neighbors and failed to help?
Societal reintegration for survivors. At some point, after a victim has been given a safe space in which to heal and grow and find justice, at some point they must graduate from our programs and stand on their own two feet in an unpredictable world. And we want them to do so without fear or further trauma, with a healthy ability to face the challenges of life, not dependent on us or anyone else for basic needs. Empowered women empower others. Predators, however, isolate their victims to make them dependent on the abuser whether emotionally, financially, or otherwise. One goal is for these victims to be able to face the world without being re-victimized.
These eight areas above have yet to be covered by a single organization, a single advocacy that can be a hub for resources for women’s safety and security. We should start an organization for women, one not skewed by a political bias that closes its doors to women from under-represented sectors. An organization is required, which can screen advocates to prevent wolves in sheeps clothing from revictimizing or retraumatizing survivors on their odyssey of a journey to recovery and justice.
My stalker was a self defense instructor. Thankfully, he died in 2017, after over two years of stalking and harassment and threats to my life and the safety of my family. In 2018, I tried to make a self-defense studio to help other women based on my theory of holistic self defense, which at the time only had the first four aspects. We had vetted physical self defense instructors from various systems and schools across NCR. We had security specialists and medical instructors to teach how to avoid or survive violence. We had a partner group of psychologists and counselors, as well as lawyers who volunteered to help those who needed it. Not all hopeful endeavors are successful, and this early project ended when the pandemic lockdown began.
But with the pandemic now subsiding and society recovering, it is time to address the matter of violence that impacts women across the country and across the world. Urduha, a women’s NGO that I and some others are now organizing, seeks to create a hub of resources for women in the Philippines centered around this idea of holistic self defense.
Because maybe it’s easy to kick an attacker in the groin, or to break his finger while turning down unwanted sexual advances. But isn’t it better to educate the vulnerable so they cannot be victimized so easily? To help victims survive the present threat? To assist survivors in discovering strength, justice, and peace so they can guide others and advocate adequate measures to prevent such crimes?
And someday, if we get this sorted out right, future generations may someday be educated to know the meaning of consent and have a sense of agency over their own lives, and be wise and discerning against the predators around them and capable of helping the vulnerable in their respective communities. Maybe someday, the generation of our children will not face these dangers unprepared. Maybe someday, no more women will be victims.
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If you want to nominate a group or an individual to be part of the hub of women’s resources we’re putting together, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/wGdqVuHvdb2tbfPm9
If you have any comments on this concept document, please email me at [email protected] or [email protected]. Constructive inputs will be most appreciated.
Thank you.