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carrot Treat your loved ones — or yourself — to the gift of safety

Rape prevention and more
(8-week class for women and teen girls starts Jan. 26)

Intro workshops coming up:

  • Women and teen girls 16+

  • High school girls (+ moms)

  • Middle school girls (+ moms)

Check out details on these classes and more here»


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carrot What is self-defense?

Many people think of self-defense as what they would do if someone jumped them in a parking lot or dark alley.

We do teach ways to fight off an attacker. But self-defense is much more than that! It is a set of skills-verbal, emotional, mental, and physical-that you can use to keep yourself safe, claim your space, set limits, say no, heal from past abuse or attacks, and live the life you want to live. (See "Have you ever had to use it?") more»

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carrot Why self-defense?

Whether or not you live in a high-crime area, attack is unfortunately a possibility. For women especially, most assaults don't come from strangers in parking lots-they come from friends, acquaintances, romantic partners, or family members. more»

carrot Who killed Homaira?


Homaira Rahman of Northern Va. was killed by her abuser, who stabbed her 91 times with a pair of scissors, and the City Paper ran a profile of her.

The article portrayed Rahman’s situation and her relationship with the man who ultimately killed her as unique to Afghan-American life. Defend Yourself's Lauren Taylor wrote a letter to the editor doing what the article failed to do—putting Rahman’s murder in the larger context of abusive relationships; it ran Oct. 10 and said, in part:

Yes, details of her family and culture reflected Islam,

Afghanistan, and the experiences of immigrants and first-generation Americans. But the fundamentals of the abusive relationship described were universal:  

  • her boyfriend was jealous and controlling,
  • he contacted her constantly, wanting to know where she was, who she was with, and what she was doing, and
  • he intermittently exploded in anger at her, and each time he followed the rage with apologies and gifts.  

One in four women in this country are physically abused by an intimate partner at some point in their lives. Even more experience emotional or mental abuse. Some 1,300 women in this country are killed by their abusers each year. Women and girls ages 16 to 24 are most likely to be abused. more»
               
 
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