10 Important Women in Silat

For decades, women have played an important role in Pencak Silat development, training and sports. Below is a non-exhaustive list of 10 important women who contributed to Pencak Silat for their respective country.

Ika Lesmana is an accomplished coach of the Indonesian National Team. She was one of the main coaches at the 2018 Asian games for Pencak Silat. A former national athlete from 1988 to 2001, she won gold at the 2001 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur. Ika became a national coach in 2005 for the SEA Games in the Philippines until the Asian Games in 2018. She is currently a national coach for PB IPSI (Ikatan Pencak Silat Indonesia) and has trained numerous athletes to become regional, national and world champions, including her son Paksi Ghifari who won 1st place at PON 2021.

Siti Rahmah Mohamed Nasir is a well-known female Silat fighter from Terengganu, Malaysia. She is a four-time World Pencak Silat Championships winner (2012, 2014, 2016 and 2018), and has won two gold medals at the 2015 Singapore SEA Games and the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games. She was first introduced to martial arts through taekwondo and later fell in love with Pencak Silat. Although she is 35 years old now, she still wants to compete at upcoming SEA Game tournaments and World Championships in 2022.

Nurul Suhaila is a famous Pencak Silat fighter, who was born on February 25, 1995 in Singapore. She represented Singapore at the Southeast Asian Games, the Asian Games and the Pencak World Championships. Suhaila won her first world championship in 2018, at the 15th World Pencak Silat Championship and was awarded Pesilat of the year. She is the youngest of 3 children and continues to compete for the Singapore National Team. Most recently, Nurul Suhaila competed in the South East Asian Pencak Silat Championships in Singapore in Feburary 2022.

Chintya Candranaya is a well known Pencak Silat practitioner from Indonesia with over a million followers on YouTube. She comes from the Pencak Silat Harimau Utara school from Lampung, located on the southern tip of the island of Sumatra. She was taught by Master Agus of Harimau Utara. She is now 26 years old (in 2022) and is known for kicking metal gas cylinders, punching and kicking hard concrete, and other extreme actions done with her bare hands. She has over 1.5M subscribers on YouTube.

Wewey Wita is a world-champion Pencak Silat fighter from Indonesia. She has won gold in Tanding at the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia. The 18th Asian Games, also known as Jakarta–Palembang 2018, was a continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 August to 2 September 2018 in Jakarta and Palembang. She is married to Denny Aprisani, a former Pencak Silat athlete for Indonesia. Wewey Wita became even more famous for a lightning fast sidekick done to her opponent at the 2018 Belgium Open Pencak Silat tournament. The video of her kicking down her opponent went viral and was shared millions of times including by ESPN.

Pipiet Kamila is a world-champion Pencak Silat fighter from Indonesia. A graduate of the Jakarta State University (UNJ) with a field of Sport Science, Pipiet used her knowledge of sport science to improve her performance in Silat sport. She managed to win several international Gold medals including Gold at the 2018 Asian Games 2018, the largest multi-sport game after the Olympics. She is married to the well-known Pencak Silat athlete Hanifan who is also on the Indonesian national team.

Ibu Rita Suwanda is the head instructor of Pencak Silat Mande Muda International, and the president of Mande Muda Indonesia. Mande Muda is a well-known Pencak Silat from the Suwanda family created by Guru Besar Uyuh Suwanda in 1951 with roots in very ancient and traditional styles of Silat. Ibu Rita was featured in Discovery Channel’s Fight Quest series, where co-hosts Jimmy Smith and Doug Anderson trained with her in Bandung, Indonesia. Ibu Rita continues to teach and hold seminars across the world. 

Puspa Arumsari is an Indonesian artistic Pencak Silat practitioner and gold medalist at the 2016 Pencak Silat World Championship. Puspa represented Indonesia at the 2018 Asian Games and claimed gold medal in the women’s individual tunggal event where Pencak Silat was one of the newest sports to be introduced at the 2018 Asian Games. Her training video on Jurus Tunggal has been viewed almost a million times on YouTube. She recently won gold at the 2021 Pekan Olahraga Nasional (PON) which is the national games in Indonesia. 

Kyoko Soda is a Japanese woman named who began learning Silat more than 20 years ago. She is currently the President of the Japan Pencak Silat Association (JAPSA). Kyoko has been fascinated by Pencak Silat and Indonesian culture since college. Kyoko studied Silat under the late Pak Rifai Sahib, and currently represents the Panca Sakti school of Pencak Silat in Japan. She is also a Class I judge (wasit/jury), the highest level of judge in international competition (and a mom). Kyoko has managed to promote Pencak Silat in Japan with a surprising amount of success.

Sakina Ahmad was the first woman to win an International Gold medal in Pencak Silat for the United States of America. In 2018, Sakina won gold medals at international tournaments in both Belgium and Singapore (Junior division). Sakina has studied Silat under her father Abdul-Malik Ahmad (USA National Coach). She has earned her black belt in Pencak Silat and has competed in many regional tournaments, winning first or second place in almost all of the tournaments she attends. Sakina is currently a full-time student at Virginia Commonwealth University graduating in May 2022.