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Friday, April 17, 2015

Princesses of Persia: Check out Iran's new Killer Weapon, Female Ninja ‘Assassins’

Sputnik unravels the truth about Iran’s all-female squad of martial artists three years after Western media published a story claiming Tehran was training ninjas to kill enemies of the Islamic Republic.

Three years ago, Reuters was kicked out of Iran after the news agency published a story, claiming that Tehran was preparing an all-female squad of professional killers trained in ninjutsu, a lethal martial art practiced by ninjas.

The original story caught the public’s attention. Readers from around the world wanted to know more about the all-female squad of Iranian ninjas. Sputnik managed to get in touch with Tehran’s “notorious” ninja-training club and spoke with head coach Akbar Faraji to reveal the secret that left many in awe after the original story was published in 2012.

Female Ninja – Iran’s New Weapons! #Amazons .http://t.co/Z5evhV2Zub pic.twitter.com/Bcof9v0R0Y

— ✨Nicole Bonnet✨ (@NicoleBonnet1) September 16, 2014

Turns out, ninjutsu is not a new thing in Iran, as women have been training in this form of martial art over two decades. Faraji himself has been coaching ninjutsu more than 12 years, the ninja-master told Sputnik in an exclusive interview.

The training regimen of Iranian ninjas is quite similar to those of other martial arts practitioners from around the world. Faraji said he traveled to other countries, including Russia, to exchange his knowledge with other ninjutsu experts. Faraji aims to reveal his students’ “inner self,” as he called it, and added that the key thing in ninjutsu is to make students interested in the training process and ensure that they are constantly developing their skills.

Faraji trains both men and women. He said it doesn’t matter whether his students are men or women, as long as they are learning the ancient art and the philosophy surrounding it.

However, there are indeed a lot of women that train in ninjutsu in Iran. The reason is simple: ninjutsu requires a full-body keikogi, a traditional uniform that must be worn during training. Since the training gear covers the whole body, ninjutsu classes attract women of all ages, including those who follow the strict Sharia rules.

“We have 5 to 6-year-old girls, as well as 50-year-old women who train in our club. Depending on their preferences and their fitness level, women are free to choose exercises of various difficulty levels,” the head coach said.

When asked about the Reuters story that claimed Faraji was training “professional assassins,” the coach said it was total nonsense and blamed the news agency for biased and prejudiced reporting.

“The information that they published is not true in any way! We’re a sports facility. Judge for yourself: we conduct our training in accordance with rules, adopted by not only the Martial Arts Federation of Iran, but also by the International Ninjutsu Society… I’m not a terrorist, I’m a coach.”

According to Faraji, a woman, who came from Reuters to write the report, managed to pull the wool over his eyes. The journalist claimed she was doing a report on the leisure activities of Iranian women who train in martial arts. The coach didn’t doubt her real intention until the story was published and because of that he had experienced some trouble. If he had known her real objective for taking pictures and writing the story, he would have never even spoken to her, the coach said, regretting his past mistake.

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AIIB International Bank: Military Confrontation between 2 super powers, US vs China ?

The United States and China could be plunged into a war for geopolitical influence, Jared McKinney warns, adding that Washington should adopt a give-and-take approach in its relationship with Beijing.

The United States wants to keep its dominant geopolitical position at all costs, ignoring the fact that the world is changing rapidly and new powerful global players are emerging; America’s unwillingness to take China’s interests into consideration may lead to a direct confrontation between the powers, noted Jared McKinney, an expert from the Peking University and the London School of Economics.

“The US – or more precisely, large political blocs within the US – doesn’t actually want to share a stake of its power with China: It likes the division of world power the way it is and sees no reason to allow any change. China is rising. Rather than adjust structures and relationships to this reality, it is nicer to pretend nothing needs to change.”

Indeed, in 2010, the US Congress blocked the IMF reform aimed at shifting member quota shares (and voting rights) for new emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS).

American congressmen expressed their deep concerns regarding the proposed scheme of international financial cooperation, saying that it would facilitate China’s growth while US influence would be diminished.

However, this “argument is prima facie spurious, as America would still remain the only member state with veto powers,” the expert elaborated.

Although its bid for integration was dismissed, Beijing kept a cool head and began creating its own parallel financial system: in 2014 the country together with other BRICS nations launched their $100 billion New Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Eventually the United States found itself in an awkward position, since more than 50 nations, including Washington’s closest European allies, rushed to join the China-led AIIB. Predictably, this situation has sparked outrage among American policy makers.

In light of this a direct confrontation between the two global powers does not seem improbable, Mr. McKinney noted. He cited Dr. Christopher Coker, an expert in international relations, who said that a war between China and the US “is not inevitable, but nor is it as improbable as many experts suggest.”

“The precondition of a Sino-American war is most likely to be the rivalry between a dominant power and one that seeks to take its place; the precipitant, China’s attempts to undermine the relationship between the U.S. and its allies/client states; but the trigger could well be naval spats, bullying that goes too far,” Dr. Coker stressed as quoted by Jared McKinney.

Obsessed with the idea of its supremacy, Washington prefers not to consider China as its equal and rejects Beijing’s proposal to create a “new model of major country relations.”

Thus far, Washington and Beijing currently have a 50/50 chance of avoiding war, the experts believe. It is time for the United States to realize that “the status quo cannot be enshrined as holy” and to build a new consensus with China, “stepping off the road to war and onto the road to peace,” Jared McKinney emphasized.

Alas, it seems the US leadership persists in its refusal to adopt a give-and-take approach:

“When 95% of our potential customers live abroad, we must be sure that we are writing the rules for the global economy, not a country like China,” US President Obama claimed in his recent message to Congress.