“This is your space. No one is allowed in unless you let them in.”

This powerful message lies at the heart of a self-defense and situational awareness programme currently taking place in Beirut’s Karantina and Bourj Hammoud neighborhoods. Designed and implemented by UNDP as part of the Masarouna project, in collaboration with OXFAM, the initiative is redefining how women, especially those most vulnerable, relate to their surroundings.

The programme offers more than physical training. It creates a rare and inclusive safe space for women who are often excluded from such opportunities, such as full-time caregivers, migrant workers, or survivors of harassment. Led by Mirella Atallah, a Lebanese world champion and black belt in Jiu-Jitsu, sessions begin with light-hearted exercises called “grips and giggles” to ease participants into more intense material: situational scanning, physical defense, and escape tactics.

Moves like the “mount” or “choke” are not just physical drills. They are moments of empowerment. Women who have long adapted to a world that teaches them to shrink or endure begin to realize they can resist. They can break grips. They can protect each other.

The training environment becomes a living network of solidarity. Participants share real-life encounters with scams, harassment, and attempted abductions. They exchange advice such as carrying hairspray, sending live locations, and trusting their instincts. These stories naturally weave into the sessions, turning lived experience into a learning tool and evolving the curriculum in real time.

At the programme’s core is a focus on relational awareness, which considers how women interact with their bodies, each other, and the public spaces they occupy. The goal is not to shift responsibility for safety onto women, but rather to give them tools to better navigate an often-hostile world. Through a mix of movement, mental alertness, and intuitive response, participants earn to trust themselves in ways many have never had the opportunity to explore.