In Beirut, refugee girls and women learn more than self-defense in martial arts class

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. In Beirut, refugee girls and women learn more than self-defense in martial arts class May 25, 20266:00 AM ET By Jane Arraf Palestinian girls train in jiu jitsu in the refugee camp of Bourj el Barajneh in South Beirut. Aline Deschamps for NPR hide caption toggle caption Aline Deschamps for NPR BEIRUT — In a makeshift gym in the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp, the participants in this martial arts class are unlearning much of what they have been taught about how girls and women should behave. It's the end of a two-month course in Brazilian jiu jitsu - a form of the Japanese martial art - and the small space rings out with yells and the sound of shuffling as coach Mirella Atallah drills her students on how to get leverage against a much stronger opponent.

Mirella Atallah, Lebanese-Canadian, is a trainer of jiu jitsu and former world champion who now trains women and marginalized communities around the world - in societies where there's little awareness about gender-based violence and talking about sexual abuse is considered a taboo most of the times. Aline Deschamps for NPR hide caption toggle caption Aline Deschamps for NPR Atallah, though, doesn't consider it just self-defense. "For me it's important to call it women's empowerment in public spaces, " she says.

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Sponsor Message "After two weeks I felt I was changing - not just in sports but my mental health and everything," says Aisha Saqqa, 18, and a first-year business management student in college. "Mirella told us to act differently. " That includes noticing their surroundings in public instead of striving to not be noticed, keeping their heads up and making eye contact.

It also includes using their voices, a challenge for some girls raised to be quiet. Atallah doesn't consider jiu jitsu only self defense. The training includes noticing surroundings in public instead of striving to not be noticed, keeping their heads up and making eye contact.

It also includes using their voices, a challenge for some girls raised to be quiet. Aline Deschamps for NPR hide caption toggle caption Aline Deschamps for NPR "I had a lady in the program, she actually tried to scream and to scream for help and she couldn't - her voice wouldn't go out," Atallah says. Saqqa, who wants to start a perfume business, wears a pale pink hijab covering her hair and a loose green shirt, and plans to start a perfume business after college.

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She speaks passionately about wanting to improve herself, to join every club she can and to become skilled at public speaking. Everyone in the room is overcoming adversity - starting with being born in one of Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps to families who fled or were forced out of their homes with the creation of Israel in 1948 and never allowed back. Malak, left, is a Palestinian refugee teenager who lives in Bourj el Barajneh and trains in jiu jitsu.

She met Hanan (the one next to her) in the training and they always team up together. They became more than friends "like sisters!

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.