Bolivia's Aymara women train to fight back against domestic violence

A Bolivian Aymara woman poses for a photograph with Sports Psychologist Laura Roca (L) and Personal Development and Women's coach Kimberly Nosa (R) of the Warmi Power social project during a taekwondo class to learn self-defence, on the outskirts of La Paz, Bolivia April 23, 2021. Picture taken April 23, 2021. Laura Roca/Warmi Power/Handout via REUTERS

LA PAZ (Reuters) - Lucrecia Huayhua has survived domestic violence for most of her life. Now, with other indigenous Aymara women in Bolivia's highlands, she is taking things into her own hands with taekwondo classes to learn self-defense.

In the high-altitude cities of La Paz and El Alto, indigenous "cholita" women, who have long faced discrimination, train wearing their distinctive billowing skirts and bowler hats as part of a female empowerment drive by the Warmi Power project.