Facing Violence, Mexican Women Learn to Fight Back Agence France-Presse
go to original April 8, 2016

The slender, 24-year-old Mexican female nurse faces off with a much bigger gun-toting man, twists his hand to snatch the weapon, points it at her attacker and pulls the trigger.

Fabiola Arteaga is not being threatened on the streets, but is taking part in a practice bout at a martial arts academy in a sprawling Mexico City suburb.

Arteaga is among a growing number of women and teenage girls taking self-defense classes at several training centers in Ecatepec, a crime-ridden city of 1.6 million where killings of women have surged in recent years.

Students learn techniques such as disarming a man with a gun or a knife, kicking him, breaking his nose, escaping a chokehold, or twisting his arm when he tries to grab them from behind.

Some 600 women have been murdered in the State of Mexico, which nearly surrounds Mexico City, in the past four years, with most homicides taking place in Ecatepec, according to the non-governmental National Citizen Observatory of Femicides.

Read the rest at AsiaOne

Photo: Agence France-Presse

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