Aliyyah Sumar, Nurs ’05 defends herself in a simulated attack as
part of the eight-week self-defence course.
It’s a frightening reality: one in every four women in Canada
will be assaulted at some point in her life.
“I told the girls this in the beginning: three out of the 14 of us
have been or will be attacked,” said Hang Nhan, instructor of
“Self-Defence for Women.”
Nhan considers it her personal mission to teach women in Kingston
how to protect themselves.
“Look, I went to Queen’s. I thought, ‘I’m tough, I’m 19, I’m
independent.’ But I was attacked in Pervert Park [City Park] on the
way home from the bar. All I want is to keep this from happening to
other women,” she said.
The class, offered through the Instructional Sports Skills program
of Queen’s Athletics, is intended to prepare women both physically
and mentally to defend themselves in various situations, including
attempted rape and robbery.
“I think it’s important for every woman to learn at least basic
self-defence,” said student Dana Fryer, ArtSci ’05.
“Hang’s an awesome instructor. She teaches you a lot of different
options so you can figure out what works for you.”
Amy Lawson and Aliyyah Sumar, both Nurs ’05, enrolled because they
felt unsafe walking to and from their clinical placements.
“It’s dark in the morning when we leave the house and again in the
evening when we leave the hospital,” Lawson said. “We had an
incident one year when a girl was followed at 5:30 in the morning.”
“Knowing that we know what to do in a situation like that is a
definite confidence-booster,” Sumar said.
Monday was the final class for the fall session of the course. After
eight weeks of learning and practicing self-defence moves such as
kneeing, grappling and choke holds, the women in Nhan’s class were
ready to apply their skills in an attack simulation.
Assistant Instructor Mike Power donned a suit of protective padded
armor, in order to play the role of an attacker.
“Don’t be afraid to hit him in the groin,” Nhan told her students.
“It’s like he has a big diaper on.”
Power and the students acted out various scenarios, such as waiting
at a bus stop and using an ATM machine.
The students fought their way out of common attacks, including wrist
grabs, hair grabs and bear hugs from the front and back.
To heighten the realism, Nhan dimmed the lights and instructed Power
to use profanity.
After the simulation, Nhan’s students felt simultaneously empowered
and sobered by the very real possibility of such attacks.
“That was intense,” said Interpreet Singh, ArtSci ’05. “I’m so ready
to take someone on.”
“I’m still shaky,” Fryer said. “I felt like I was going to burst out
into tears.”
“But now I know what to look for to prevent [an attack] from
happening,” she said.
“Without the simulation, I don’t think I would know how to react,”
said Helen Ma, ArtSci ’05. “But now that I’ve been there, I feel so
much more confident.”
“If you can do this, you can defend yourself for life,” Nhan told
her students.
The winter session of “Self-Defence for Women” begins in January.
Registration starts this week at the wicket in the PEC. The cost of
the course is $40 for nine classes.
“It’s worth every penny,” Ma said.
Photo by Ian Babbit
