Continued article from our Power to Women Corporate Women Self Defense Workshops Website >> Part 2

There is an alarming increase in knife/gun crimes, sexual assaults, kidnapping and murders in our streets, home and workplace. Corporate female staff, house wives or young girls or children does not have the time to invest in year of martial arts nor the ladies wish to engage in a fist fight after work or in house. At the time of need, there is only one thing you can trust! Your instincts, reflexes and the core strength of being a human being being re-enforced with ‘Power to Women’ knowledge.

I am a social entrepreneur and a women safety empowerment specialist who has worked for more than 7+ years with children and women who were sexually and violently abused. I did research with my friend Mrs. Ottilie Kumar, a Women Psychologist to understand her point of view as a women, what she would feel before, during and after an violent sexual assault.

Here is what I learned…

Can Punch or Kick solve all women problems?

Women Self Defense is not about some punches, kicks or tricks/tactics of some system or martial arts. Punches, Kicks, Tactics alone does not help a women when she has to live in the same community or house of her tormentors. Sexual Abuse of Women, Violence against Women and Victimization or Victim blaming of women DOES NOT follow the principals of martial art which is honor, fair play, no undue use of strength etc. There is a big difference between studio training of women self defense and real life application where a women is actually safe.

In fact, martial arts is a more of a male point of view of how to handle situations, which a female victim cannot relate to. Women Self Defense subject itself need to be re-born, and so-called women self defense instructors and martial arts experts teaching women need to re-educate themselves to see the problem from a women point of view. Bangalore mega-city is second highest in Crime in India among all mega-city. Delhi is rape capital of India. 2000 years of martial arts is not helping the women! 2000 years of mental outlook of men who train in martial arts is not helping the women! It’s time for women to make a smart decision about where to train and who to train with. Someone with just certificates or someone with knowledge, experience and grass-root level vision of the subject.

I am learning more than teaching

I am blessed to have worked more than 7 years with children and women who were sexually and physically abused, as apart from there survival spirit which inspired me, I gained so much knowledge, which helped me designed ‘Power to Women’ Workshops. All the debates and arguments with Mrs. Ottilie, a psychologist also gave me a sneak peek into the mind of a women especially when she is faced with trauma. Every time I conduct a Corporate or Organisational Wellness Women Self Defense workshops on Women Safety Awareness, Women Self Defense and Psychological Empowerment against Crime, Violence and Sexual Abuse Workshop, I am actually learning more than teaching from the answer and questions of the women participants.

Military mindset to help the women

These workshops also includes Krav Maga an Israeli Military Self Defense system which is practiced in realistic scenario, what a women would actually face and how the women should be  taught to neutralize her attacker in spite of her small size, her lack of fitness and her limited strength while she is dealing with shock, surprise and pain of the assault. So the workshops mixed two worlds: Tactics of Krav Maga Israeli Military Self Defense based on Reflex actions along with Women Psychological Empowerment against Crime, Violence and Sexual Abuse using Neuro Linguistic / Behavioral Drills and Psychological Empowerment techniques designed by me.

Shameless Promotion

In short, ‘PowertoWomen.in’ workshops empowers the women to look inside a find the strength of a tiger irrespective of her actual size, strength and age. Not just for threats against her but also to become and better human being, increasing productively, better decision making while handling stress and focus on positive solution even when fear and insecurity of our past freezes us.

Visit us at http://www.PowertoWomen.in

Franklin Joseph: “Women Self Defense – Male Dominance Even in Safety for Women?” – Part 3 is a post from: Franklin Joseph

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Women Self Defense is mainly a male point of view martial arts where the focus is more on strength, size, fitness level etc. which is not applicable for most women. If the women is a small person, or her age is young, maybe she is physically not fit, or she is a older women etc these are some of the factors that effects the outcome of a street assault.

Older or Newer Martial Arts

• Do not get caught by words like: karate, Kung Fu, Krav maga, mixed martial arts, realistic scenario training etc.. Lot of schools just use these names to attract clients.
• Being 200 years old does not mean it is adaptable to modern crime scenarios. Can it handle simple crime situations when you are wearing skirts, silhouettes or saree etc?
• Being old does not mean better, sometimes we need to modern prospective on crime, and criminals.

Role of Fitness, Flexibility and Strength

• Lot of martial arts requires fitness, strength and flexibility. Bruce lee, jackie chan are not fat, pot bellied people.
• They used to practice daily for more than 8 hours or so to look and do stuff like that you see in movies.
• Your body is your temple. If you are fat, thin, small, big, young, old, you are working with that. That your baseline.
• Can you defend yourself in that body today? not a year from now when you will do your crash diet course, or when you will join a gym and slim down.
• NOW, can you defend yourself  NOW using these moves of martial arts?

Limitations of Real Life

• Can you kick like that wearing sari? Can you jump or roll on a crowded road where there are not soft mats on the floor? Can you do these moves against a bigger stronger man?
• Can you jump in and out of the car or the bus or use high kicks inside a car?
• Can you fight your martial arts moves wearing 6 inch heels or a party dress if needed?
• Can you fight without your reading or regular classes or without your shoes?
• Can you fight with your husband, child holding you or involved in the argument? Can you protect them at all time?

Psychological Factors before, during and after

• Last but not the least, martial arts just teaches you how to fight. That all.
• Martial art is all about fighting, any result of fighting is never good.
• Martial arts does not teach you how to prevent, avoid and escape any threat.
• Martial arts does not teach you how to deal with the trauma, stress of the fight and the fear factor involved in such a situation.

Women learning Self defense is not about fulfilling a small dream to act like Bruce Lee, but for a women it’s all about honor, dignity and way of life. Make your choice wisely.

Franklin Joseph: “Beware of the Junk Being Taught in Name of Women Self Defense” Part 3 is a post from: Franklin Joseph

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It’s sad to see so many cases of women sexual abuse is happening in India. Being a man, I can honestly say, the change has to come in the way the men think about women, especially the one in the family or loved ones or should I say, how they think others men would look at their women. I am not a saint when it comes to other women, so I guess I know little bit of what I am saying here. This is my point of view. Do excuse my English grammer mistakes!

For most father, it’s a normal family time when he sits on the couch with his family and watches any latest Hindi movie on television.  In nearly in all Bollywood ‘U’ rated movie, he can enjoy it’s item dance songs in which half naked girls gyrate to the beats. His wife, his children even help singing, humming or even dance mimicking the same steps as the actress. No wonder, I, myself had no answer to my 6 year old daughter question “Why is that lady dancing in her underwear?”.

Should I say “She has no money?” or “They put these things to sell the movie” or “I am just watching the story”!!!

On the table, he keeps a normal weekly magazine or local daily newspaper which has articles, advertising and sections show beautiful women in bikinis or underwear or has articles about sex, foreplay or sexual positions with explicit photos on the same topic. Damn! Where are the good old days when we had to smuggle PlayBoy via my merchant navy friend who visited USA.

Any popular website he would visit like HindustanTimes, IndiaTimes, MSN, IBNlive etc., he has a special section with lots of photos of skin, skin and skin!!!

When he switches on the TV, he has no issue with advertisements content where women skin is used to sell products everything from soap to cement.

He has no restrictions to check out reality show where soft porn star Sunny Leone is getting popular with the Indian teens (both boys and girls) or checking out New Year wishes from Poonam Pandey!

Let’s check out how many men got offended by all of these and reported them as Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

895 reports of Indecency in a country with population of 1,181,377,682. Why should I even point fingers at someone when I did smsed few times to the number that flashed on the scree and then gave up after nothing happened.

So, it seems more than 1 billion people are actually fine with lot of women showing skin in our lives. Including me!

But there is a big shout in the recent news about how women are inviting rape by wearing ‘provocative clothes’ like jeans, salwar kameez (as per our Dinesh Reddy, DGP, Andhra Pradesh) etc.? Please someone show them what kind of dress code is actually provocative!!!

Are men scared on how other men would look at their women? As they say in Hindi “Chor ki dadhi mein tinka” [Rough Translation : A robbery always leaves have some clue]

I am a man, and I am scared. I am scared to some extent on how my wife or my daughter is looked up in the street. But, I try to hide that fear sometimes and sometimes I try to educate them as much as I can. AM I WRONG? Should I tell my daughter, not to wear short skirts or should I tell inform her about good touch and bad tough and trust her to make a right decision. What if while growing up she makes more mistakes? Should I shout at her or ban her from going out or restrict her dress code when she is a teenager or a young girl?

I found my answer one day…

One of SlutWalk co-organisers wrote a article after that event was cancelled in Bangalore after threats were received that women will not be allowed to wear ‘provocative’ dress-code in SlutWalk. The organised claimed they wrote “Wear whatever is comfortable”. Everyone assumed they all were wearing skimpy dress-code, short skirts etc. She answered back saying, she was planning to wear a sari.

After I read that line, I smiled too. Even I did not think, some or many women would wear a sari or jeans or dress to SlutWalk. I also assumed they would wear lingerie. Where did I get that idea from? When I googled “Slutwalk” I was shocked to see half naked women on road with signs ‘Proud to be Sluts’ etc on their chest. And I also assumed with a frown, thinking we will have that in Bangalore. What is the world coming too especially now when I have daughter growing up. Even after reading many articles of SlutWalk organizers I was still assuming they are asking to wear such dresses. Every word they said, just strengthened that thought in my mind especially those images of women in foreign SlutWalk merging with Indian faces.

Here also, I was scared everyone would look at my women in the same way, I, sometime look at other women. I support any such campaigns like SlutWalk and other which are for Women empowerment, fighting victim blaming & sexual abuse.

Am I so wrong with this fear? Am I stupid to watch out for the safety of my family members? As a father, don’t I have the right to say what my daughter does or wears or act? Maybe, yes. Maybe No.

But I cannot always assume they cannot handle themselves or they cannot judge what is right from wrong? If she wears jeans, she should have the confidence to be able to carry herself. If she wears a dress to party, I would teach them how to fight back verbally or physically if someone crosses the line.

I know, I will make mistakes as a father or a husband, but I, sincerely hope at the end of the time, they will look upon me as a man of the house that trusted them for the decisions they make and stand beside them unconditionally – well….almost unconditionally!  :) ,

By the way Vidya Balan really acted very well in the movie ‘The Dirty Picture’, excellent script, cinematography, editing…, I wonder why that funny name!!!

Ooh la la
Ooh la la
Ooh la la
Ooh la la
Tu hai meri fantasy…

By Franklin Joseph

Franklin Joseph: “Fear of How Other Men Look At my Women (as Sluts)” is a post from: Franklin Joseph

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In my point of view, Eve-teasing is a clap with two hands. One women and another man. And no I am not saying clothes is the reason. I purely see the issue of Women related crime as objectively as possible and try not to take side of women or man perspective.

In this Guwahati incident, one TV channel asks me what can we do with these monsters. Interestingly, these men are not some serial rapists who escaped from jail. They were someone brother, someone son, someone husband or someone girl’s father. They were walking or riding bikes back from work or going to home when they see this girl half naked and helpless and they do not hesitate to grope her and enjoy doing it without any fear of being caught in camera.

[FranklinJoseph.in] [Post] Few Examples

• Every time a mother discriminate against a girl child in front of a boy child, the seed of such crime is always been planted in both minds. One sees himself as powerful and another as a weakling.
• Every time we enjoy seeing a women abused in a sexual way on TV or movies and do not wish to talk about what we see with our children, we plant a seed where they might also replicate or become what they see on TV.

Communication and education of both women and men especially at the young age is the only way to stop crime against women. It’s a slow path and not as fancy as a martial arts demo class, but according to me and based on the results I can see in my participants, it’s the only path to a safer future for women in the fourth most dangerous country for women – India.

By Franklin Joseph

Mr. Franklin Joseph is social entrepreneur and a speaker on his ‘PowertoWomen.in‘ workshops focused on creating Women Safety Awareness and Psychological Empowerment against Crime, Violence and Sexual Abuse against Women. He is also a Israeli trained Self Defense instructor since 2003 specializing in teaching women self defense. He has also intensively researched on before and after effects of women related abuse and crime scenarios during his 7 years working with non-profit organisation working on women and child abuse. His institute ‘BadAzz Combat Academy‘ has recently started Knife Fighting and Knife Self Defense training along with Ninja Kubaton Pocket Stick Self Defense and Collapsible Baton Self Defense training and Stop Crime against Women Electric Shock Stun Gun Training.

Franklin Joseph: “Eve-teasing is Usually Considered a Non-issue in India. How Does One Change that Perception?” is a post from: Franklin Joseph

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No city is safe if we keep our guard down. National Crime Record Bureau has reported among 53 cities, Delhi (City) accounted for 13.3% (4,489) of total such crimes followed by Bengaluru 5.6% (1,890) and Hyderabad 5.5% (1,860). There is an alarming increase in knife/gun crimes, sexual assaults, kidnapping and murders in our streets, home and workplace especially against women. Corporate female, housewife, college or teenage girls does not have the time to invest years in martial arts training nor the ladies wish to engage in a fist fight. On top of that women have been told from their childhood that they have to be nice or they are weak or fragile. On top of that some women feel they are too young, too old, too fat, too thin, too timid or shy, too weak to handle the power, aggression, strength and size of a grown up man.

[FranklinJoseph.in] [Post] Martial arts can only teach punches and kicks which is most black and white example. kick and punch the bad guy. But in a real life scenario most of the time, these situations falls under the gray area example Can a 6 year old girl punch and kick a neighborly uncle who is abusing her where it does not feels a bad thing but more like a fun game? Can a 54 year old women kick in a small space of a bus or car wearing a sari with a small baby in her hand? Can a teenage or college girl want to engage in a fist fight with 30 men or even two men with knives? And whenever we imagine these scenarios or in martial arts training, we always tend to ignore the violence, pain and human emotional factors which goes hand and hand with such crimes. Thus making us unprepared and venerable for such crimes to happen to us.

At the time of need, there is only one thing you can trust! Your instincts, reflexes and the core strength of being a human being. Power of being a Women.

Bangalore can be made safe city only and if only we educate and create awareness within ourselves first.

Contact us for a ‘Power to Women’ workshop by calling Mr. Franklin Joseph at 9886769281 or email him at ‘Frank(@)PowertoWomen.in’

Mr. Franklin Joseph is social entrepreneur and a speaker on his ‘PowertoWomen.in‘ workshops focused on creating Women Safety Awareness and Psychological Empowerment against Crime, Violence and Sexual Abuse against Women. He is also a Israeli trained Self Defense instructor since 2003 specializing in teaching women self defense. He has also intensively researched on before and after effects of women related abuse and crime scenarios during his 7 years working with non-profit organisation working on women and child abuse.

Franklin Joseph: “After Guwahati Molestation, is Bangalore Woman Safe?” is a post from: Franklin Joseph

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