Awards & Media

Gulshen Bano is the founder and Head Instructor of Strike Back Self Defence for Women. After experiencing a number of physical assaults and threats to her safety whilst working as a Pharmacist, she set out on a mission to be able to protect herself and began training in Krav Maga. Soon realizing there was a huge lack of safe spaces for women who didn’t want to learn in mixed classes or with a male instructor, she became an Instructor herself and proudly opened the only ‘Women’s only’ Krav self defense school in the UK. Today she teaches workshops for women and girls across the UK and worldwide, working with the Domestic Violence charity Hopefull Handbags as their global women’s self defence coordinator. She is on a mission to make these vital lifesaving skills virtually accessible to every female across the world so they can learn how to protect themselves and stay safe.

Strike Back Self Defence is proud to be associated with and working in collaboration with the 500Rising movement as a licensed instructor.

500Rising is a global program to extend and spread the knowledge of women’s self defence and prevention of violence to as many women (and men) as possible so together we can change the statistics on violence against women