4 women’s groups around the world that are literally kicking ass

Image via Complex Original

These women are smashing racism and classism from the wrestling ring. 

In Bolivia, the indigenous "cholitas" have faced discrimination for decades, according to The Guardian. But now, many are reclaiming their power through an unlikely means: wrestling. 

Draped in their traditional skirts and hats, the cholitas fight body-slam, tumble, and leap in the popular spectator sport. 

“We show society that we are strong and we respect our Aymara culture,” cholita wrestler Mery Llanos told The Guardian.

The world's first women's boxing camp was founded in 1992 by Pakistani man Younus Qambrani, whose daughter now participates in the sport, according to NBC.

Located in the Lyari neighborhood of Karachi, the program serves girls ages 8-17.

"Last year a girl came to me, asking why girls couldn't train," Qambrani told NBC. "I was moved when she said, 'No one teaches us how to defend ourselves.'" In a country where girls face threats from the Taliban just for going to school, boxing provides them with empowerment. 

One woman turned a racist attack into a movement to empower women worldwide. 

Rana Abdelhamid says she was assaulted as a teenager in the streets of New York by a man attempting to remove her headscarf. One year later, she founded the Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment to teach Muslim women to defend themselves from such crimes. 

The organization serves both Muslim and Jewish women, who are frequent victims of hate crimes, throughout the U.S. and Europe. 

With a black belt in karate, Abdelhamid teaches other women to literally fight back against Islamophobia and anti-Semitism while providing mentorship and leadership training. 

If you see a woman in a pink sari with a stick coming toward you, run fast. 

Fed up with people turning a blind eye to sexual violence in India, the Pink Vigilantes are addressing it head on—by beating rapists and domestic abusers. 

The movement began when founder Sampat Devi Pal beat a neighbor who was abusing his wife, according to Al Jazeera, and now boasts 400,000 members. 

"If we find the culprit, we thrash him black and blue so he dare not attempt to do wrong to any girl or a woman again," Devi told the publication. 

Whether for real-life combat or sport, women are harnessing their physical power to fight sexism and racism. And those are targets anyone can get behind destroying.