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Walking Jakarta’s streets at night can be a frightening experience, especially for women on their own. After a series of sexual harassment and rape cases on the capital’s buses and angkots (public minivans) last year, police even went so far as to advise women to carry pepper spray and Tasers for self-defense.

But it was one particularly horrific incident that spurred Bandung man Eko Hendrawan, 35, to act. In October 2004, three female students returning home from a pengajian (Koran study) class by angkot were attacked and robbed. They were tied up with their headscarves and thrown into Bandung’s Citarum River. Two of them drowned in the river.

“My father and I were enraged by this attack,” Eko said. “We realized that we had to do something to prevent this from happening again.”

Eko’s father Sofyan Hambally, 66, teaches a Japanese martial art known as kushin ryu , which is influenced by karate and jujitsu. He has taught the art for years from his dojo (training hall) in Kopo, Bandung.

To master any martial art takes years of dedication and discipline. But after hearing of the attack in Bandung, Eko and Sofyan decided to create a simplified course based on kushin ryu’s gentle, swift and powerful techniques for women to help them defend themselves. And they knew they had to act as quickly as possible.

Eko and his father worked on making the techniques suitable for women of all ages and physical conditions. To make it easy for them to understand and practice the movements, they created 10 basic movements, which resemble day-to-day physical activities, such as walking, combing one’s hair and dancing.

The father and son duo named their new technique Women’s Self-Defense With Kushin Ryu (WSDK).

They also devised some effective weapons that women can make out of seemingly harmless objects, such as ballpoint pens, lipstick, credit cards and handkerchiefs.

“In fact, the most powerful weapon is not the techniques or the weapons. The most powerful thing of all is your mindset,” Eko said. “From childhood, we are told that women are the weaker sex. This is not true at all. Women are actually much stronger than men.”

For example, he continued, women get pregnant, take care of their families and hold jobs.

“Just imagine if men had to get pregnant and give birth, they’d surely make a lot of fuss about it,” he said with a laugh.

It is important for women to understand their physical strength so that they do not panic and feel helpless if they are attacked. Part of the WSDK’s motto reads: “Gentle, but not weak; behind the gentleness of a woman lies a great power.”

Besides believing in their strength, women also need to take precautionary steps, especially when they travel alone at night.

“I call them the steps the Three P’s: predictive, preventive and protective,” Eko said.

Eko advised women to learn first about the areas they are traveling to in order to predict any dangers. “Does the area have a high crime rate?” he asked. “What are the available modes of transportation in that area at night?”

Women also need to adapt themselves to the area that they are visiting at night.

“Try not to wear revealing or body-hugging clothes,” he said. “And leave all your gold jewelry at home.”

Preventive measures include observing the people in the bus or angkot that you are taking.

“Everyone’s endowed with a ‘God’s spot,’ ” Eko believes. “It’s that tiny voice that whispers to you that something is not right. When that happens, you’d better get off the bus immediately.”

In an unfamiliar neighborhood, you can avoid unwanted attention by staying calm and confident.

“Avoid asking around and looking confused,” he said. “Observe the neighborhood carefully or go to the nearest warung for a drink. You can ask the owner of the warung about the safest way home.”

Women can also take protective measures by learning a martial art and using items they carry with them as weapons.

Caroline Damanik, a sports reporter at an online news Web site, learned WSDK techniques for self-defense.

“I’m boyish and not easily scared,” she said. “But I still felt uneasy whenever I had to go home by myself at night.”

As a sports reporter, Caroline often covers important competitions and national championships until very late at night. She usually takes a Kopaja bus to return to her boarding house in Fatmawati, South Jakarta.

Last February, Caroline and a group of female reporters decided to attend a WSDK class to learn how to protect themselves.

“The movements are very simple, yet effective,” she said. “And Eko taught us to use little things, such as crumpled tissues and small change [coins], as weapons.”

Eko usually role-plays in his classes so his students know how to act in real-life situations.

He showed how a victim should go or flow with the movements of the attacker instead of fighting against him to use the attacker’s energy against himself. The movements are fast, flexible and very powerful.

“When you feel something’s not right and you can’t get off the bus, you’d better take hold of something within your palm,” Eko said. “It could be some crumpled tissues or a lipstick. A hand that grasps something will make a stronger fist than an empty one.”

In dire situations, you can aim your loaded fist towards the attacker’s Adam’s apple or crotch. You can also grasp a ballpoint pen in your fist and aim it at a soft spot in your attacker’s body. With the right pressure and movements, the counter-attacks can indeed be very effective.

“We’re not seeking to create more violence,” Eko said. “But in certain situations, it may be necessary to immobilize your attacker.”

You can also put some small change into your handkerchief and knot its ends together to make a useful weapon in close combat.

“Swing it without hesitation toward the top of the head of your attacker,” Eko said. “It’ll cause a headache strong enough to stop him, even if just for a small amount of time.”

And then what?

“Run,” Eko said. “Get some help. WSDK techniques are not for fighting, but to subdue the criminals momentarily, so that you can run off and get some help.”

Women can also use WSDK techniques to fend off sexual harassment on crowded public transport.

“If a man rubs himself against you from behind, you should look him in the eyes and tell him in a clear loud voice to stop,” Eko said. “If he doesn’t listen, then twist your body a little until your hipbone faces his crotch, and shake your hip violently as if you’re dancing. It’ll bump him painfully at the crotch and teach him a lesson not to mess with women.”

It definitely takes a lot of courage and strength to confront the criminals and to stop attack.

“But you have to do it,” Eko said. “By deterring crime committed against you, you do not only help yourself, but also break the chain of crimes committed against other women.”

Dini Indriani, a marketing staff member at a publishing company in Jakarta, said she found WSDK techniques useful for her daily commute.

“I commute by angkot and bus every day,” she said. “Then, one day a group of men gathered around me in the bus. It was really scary. I was just praying that they wouldn’t do anything to harm me.”

Luckily for Dini, she managed to extricate herself from the situation and get off the bus. But the experience deeply marred her personal feelings of safety.

“Since then, I have always felt afraid whenever I take public transportation,” she said. “But what can I do? I have to take buses and angkots everyday.”

Dini’s daily commute from her office in Palmerah Selatan, West Jakarta, to her home in Bintaro, South Jakarta, takes over an hour each way.

And what the 26-year-old sees on the news each day does not help calm her fears about traveling alone.

“There are more and more crimes committed against women in angkots nowadays,” she said. “It’s so scary.”

But Dini’s regained her confidence after she learned some WSDK techniques from Eko.

“I’m not a helpless victim anymore,” Dini said. “Now I know what to do in these situations.”

Dini practices daily and helps Eko train in women’s groups and communities.

“I’m so happy to be able to help my fellow women learn to defend themselves against crime,” Dini said.

“It’s a fact that more crimes are committed against women these days,” Eko said. “And women can’t just sit around and expect their fathers, brothers, husbands or even the police to protect them all the time.”

Eko holds WSDK training sessions in Bandung on weekends and in Senayan, South Jakarta on Wednesdays.

To help spread the word, Eko even wrote a book, “Tubuhku, Senjataku …” (“My Body, My Weapon ...”) published by Gramedia last year. The 111-page book contains a practical guide for women to learn the basic movements of WSDK.

“It’s now time for women to empower themselves and take charge of their lives,” Eko said.

For more information visit: www.wsdk.org