GANGSTER girls no longer watch from the sidelines when their boyfriends fight. They join in the action, raining blows on victims with their bare fists, not stopping till they see blood.

During a fight in Kallang Bahru, pint-size Cindy (not her real name), 16, once pounded a girl with her bare hands at an HDB staircase landing. 'I hit her until she was down and sat on her. Then I pulled back her head and banged it on the ground repeatedly,' she relates in a matter-of-fact manner.

She then ripped her victim's blouse, exposing her bra. Her friend joined in, trampling on the girl's private parts with her high heels. The victim had to be taken to hospital that night, unable to squat or urinate.

Cindy was arrested and put on one year's detention at the Singapore Girls' Home and two years' home probation.

She tells how, before fights, the rules are laid down. A common rule is Square Box, where both sides agree to attack only the upper torso. But if one party cheats, it becomes an 'open fight'.

Cindy recounts: 'Once, when I fought with a girl, she punched my nose when she was losing the fight. So I hit back at her face and tore her uniform. Both sides were telling me, 'Enough, enough', but I didn't care.'

Another rule is to fight only as long as it takes for a lighted cigarette to burn out, usually five minutes.

'If my friend is winning the fight, I will just hold the cigarette and not smoke. But if my friend is losing, I will puff the cigarette continuously,' she says.

Most of the time, gangster girls fight over territory, boyfriends and staring incidents. At other times, they fight to protect their turf. 'If they win, we give the place to them. If they don't, they have to get out,' says Cindy.

To train for fights, the gangster girls hold sparring sessions to perfect their punches and kicks and pick up new moves. The better fighters train the rest.

Aisah, 16, who used to hang out with a 20-member girl gang in Bukit Panjang, recounts: 'They will go to one another's house and have sparring sessions. Some know a lot of different fighting stances and they will teach others.'

Other illegal activities include taking drugs or, more commonly, sniffing glue.

Cindy, who joined the gang at 13, became a regular glue sniffer. 'There was once I inhaled until I fainted and my friend had to help me up,' she says.

When flush with cash, they splurge on Ecstasy and ketamine party drugs.

'I used to take drugs until I had no money,' says Cindy, the only child of an equipment operator and housewife, who was given a monthly allowance of $400. When low on funds, she peddled drugs in Geylang.

The gang ethos is to do everything together - including dressing alike as a show of sisterhood.

Members of Aisah's gang, for example, wore short skirts, high heels, thick make-up and brand- name bags whenever they went out together.

Members of Lucifer, a girl gang in Woodlands, had devil tattoos on their arms or the back of their necks to show their unity, says Mr Yusof Ismail, a counsellor and chief executive of Ain Society, which works with youth at risk.

'They would wear tank tops to show off the tattoos. They bashed people up mercilessly, even for minor incidents, and made it known that it was done by Lucifer,' he says.

There are also girls who prefer to join mixed gangs or form affiliations with boys to receive protection from them. In return, the boys are allowed to pick any girl to sleep with. 'If the boys insist, there is little the girls can do,' says Aisah.

But if a girl wants out, she would be expected to 'roll over' - have sex with all the boys in the gang - before being freed.

Although rare, counsellor Evelyn Lai from youth development centre Dreams @ Kolam Ayer, observes that such sexual practices do happen as these girls do not regard having sex as 'a big deal'.

Most of them join gangs for the promise of friendship and affirmation but find it difficult to leave to make a fresh start in life.

Ms Doris Yap, programme executive of Youth Guidance Outreach Services, a Christian social work agency that helps troubled teens, notes that this is because it is hard to find an alternative, all-encompassing support group.

'Nobody else celebrates their birthdays, but this group of friends will do so with them. To help them leave the gangs, they need to have true friends who can give them company and positive validation.'

When Cindy got tired of being repeatedly hauled up by the police for fighting, shoplifting and rioting, she left the gang for good.

After playing truant for the past two years, she is now appealing to her secondary school to take her back. If she is successful, she will re-enter at Sec 2. Her peers have moved on to Sec 4.

But what bothers her more is how difficult it will be to 'mix with the good girls' again. 'Our lives are totally different. They study every day but I want to have fun,' she laments.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Mar 22, 2008.