QUITO, ECUADOR – In a dojo in central Quito, Ecuador, Ibeth Orellana Naranjo is learning how to throw punches, kicks and knock her opponent off balance. She has been taking private Muay Thai classes since November and already feels stronger.
“I’m more confident in my body and ability to move. I realize that I won’t break if I fall, whereas before I felt fragile,” Orellana told Ojalá after a Tuesday morning class. “Now I know that I can throw a punch and my hand won’t fracture. And I can get pushed and nothing will happen,” she added, as she wiped the sweat from her brow.
Orellana’s increased confidence is a common feeling among women who take self defense, according to her instructor Johanna Montesdeoca, who has been training women at the Kamikaze Hanuman’s Style school in Quito for the past two years.
Montesdeoca has seen more and more women get involved as they look for ways to empower themselves. She trains an average of 12 women each week, which would have been unheard of when she joined the school five years ago and was the only woman in the class.
Women sign up for self-defense courses for different reasons, says Montesdeoca, either for exercise, because of fear linked to the growing violence in the country or because of physical aggressions by a partner.
“I have seen a lot of successful cases in which women become stronger, not only physically but also mentally,” said Montesdeoca in an interview before class, as we waited for Orellana to arrive. “That’s what really matters: intellectual empowerment and increased self-esteem.”
Four self-defense and martial arts instructors in Quito told Ojalá that the number of women participating in their courses has risen steadily over the years as women look for new ways to defend themselves in a society where violence is increasingly common.
Robberies, assaults and violent crime have spiked across Ecuador in recent years. The small Andean nation is now considered one of the most dangerous in the region. Last year was also one of the deadliest for women in Ecuador. Over 277 women were victims of femicides, according to the Latin American Association for Alternative Development (ALDEA, in its Spanish acronym), which is based in Quito. A 2022 Gallup poll found that 72 percent of women in Ecuador say that they feel unsafe walking the streets alone.
The government blames rising crime rates on armed groups taking control of territory and the cocaine trade. Center-right President Daniel Noboa, who took office in November, declared an “internal armed conflict” in January. The decree defines 22 armed groups operating in the country as terrorist organizations, which allows the military to increase its use of force against them.
Kimberley Michelle Brown 