Lara Croft might be a fictional character, but the spirit of an ass-kicking heroine shattering glass ceilings as she makes her way through an adventure filled life is embodied by women in all shapes, sizes, ages and with a variety of ahem…bra cups. Lets face it, the character born to video game fandom in 1996 is a tad cheesy, but what she brought to the table as one of the industry’s most accomplished and successful icons, representing a pistol packing, punch throwing passionate desire to explore the world is in fact inspirational…even more so since the first five original renditions of the gaming character were a man.
Ultimately, as tongue and cheek as she is, Croft is more than just the 20-something busty goddess of badassery on the photoshopped poster for the latest film in the franchise. She’s a call to arms for women who grab life by the horns, desire an existence less ordinary and stand up for themselves and those less fortunate in the face of evil.
In the Real Life Lara Croft series I seek out inspiring stories that speak of determination in the pursuit of passion, true grit and extraordinary lives lived with spirit bordering on rapture. Women who make me say, “hell yes” when I read of their gumption and accomplishments.
And so I came across the karate grandmas of Kenya.
In one of Nairobi’s most notorious shantytowns, Korogocho, an age-old battle plays out. As sexual assault grows to epidemic proportions due to lack of enforcement and misguided belief systems, a group of about 20 elderly women, aged 60 to 100, meet once a week to practice a variety of martial arts. With the help of volunteer trainers, they learn how to fight off would-be attackers.
The group started in 2007 to teach elderly women the self defense skills needed to protect themselves and their families. They train in a mixture of wrestling and karate with elements of kung-fu and Taekwondo. They learn how to yell and attract attention while keeping their assailants at bay.
According to a 2006 report from Kenya’s national commission on human rights, a girl or woman is raped every 30 minutes.
Police are little help. With limited resources and less than stellar moral motivation to help without monetary incentives, they are just as easily bribed to look the other way.
Several success stories have already come out of the group with tales of grannies fighting off would be rapists. The retelling of these accounts gives them as much a sense of accomplishment as a sense of necessity.
Attacks on older women have become increasingly common. A conglomeration of absurd beliefs that sex with elderly women can cure AIDS or cleanse a man of his sins after committing crimes is partially to blame. Poverty, frustration, drug use and unemployment round off the problem pyramid.
Additionally, many of these grandmothers are raising their grandchildren. Orphans of HIV and AIDS are tragically common. With the added motivation of securing the next generations’ safety, the grandmas learn to target the vulnerable areas of a man’s physique with open palmed blows and karate chops. They’re done being seen as victims.
So it seems that the Lara Croft spirts of taking matters into her own hands to fight those with nefarious intentions lives on. Not just in the glossy film trailer of a Hollywood blockbuster to be, but on the sullied streets of a slum in Kenya where women of a certain age fight the evils that lurk in the shadows.
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