Saudi Arabia hosts the first internationally recognized body in the Gulf region on yoga, an ancient Indian art of healthy living. The Arab Yoga Foundation was established in 2010 by Saudi yogacharya (certified teacher) Nouf Al-Marwaai, a Saudi Muslim woman. Nouf started practicing yoga in 1998 when she was 18 years old. She was certified as a yoga teacher in 2005. Since then she has been associated with yoga. Her personal journey into yoga began when she was sick and having problems with her joints. "I wanted to practice something that could help me move slowly and gently. We were then living in Riyadh and it wasn't easy to find yoga teachers or places to teach yoga. I knew about yoga from a small book my dad had from one of his trips. My dad was the founder of the Martial Arts Federation in Arab countries and we were exposed to such practices from the East," Nouf told me on the sidelines of a yoga seminar in Jeddah. She has taught yoga to around 8,000 students since 2005 and certified more than 150 yoga teachers since 2009. There are five recognized yoga schools in Saudi Arabia, offering specialized classes in various forms of yoga. For example, the Mawada Yoga school in Jeddah teaches Vinyasa or flow yoga. The Yoga in Jeddah school offers classes on Hatha and prenatal yoga. The Indigo Yoga Center in Riyadh offers Hatha, Vinyasa, pre- and postnatal yoga classes. Jeddah Yoga Club offers workshops and training on meditation techniques. Mahayana Yoga offers workshops on yoga related topics. It is gratifying to know that today yoga, the over 6,000-year-old Indian practice of healthy living, has moved from the monasteries and sylvan solitudes to studios and workshops in modern metropolises. Western countries have adopted it and so have many people in Muslim countries. Yoga is the sublime result of the combination of meditation and calisthenics. Meditation goes beyond the narrow bounds of semantics. It's a form of relaxation. The Arab Yoga Foundation defines yoga as a lifestyle and a means of healing and therapy. It is a misconception to link yoga to Hinduism or to consider it as an exclusive feminine exercise. According to Nouf, there are many exercises Muslims can practice in yoga. "In yoga there are many styles and schools. Yoga is not just surya namaskar! There are many athletic sequences and postures which are also practiced in physiotherapy as therapeutic exercises." "I have been taught yoga and Ayurveda by Muslim teachers in India," Nouf adds. At the seminar, Dr. Mahroof Mohideen, a practicing gynecologist who embraces alternative medicine and yoga in his allopathic practice, advocated regular practice of this ancient form of exercise as it harmonizes body and mind. “Though I'm an allopathic doctor, I ask all to do yoga as it is one of the best alternative medicines. It helps as a preventive measure by enhancing one's immune system, while keeping a person fit,” Mahroof said. He said that there is an analogy between the postures of yoga and the actions when Muslims pray. “The gentle movements in our prayers is similar to the movements in yoga, for example our ruku, sajdah are similar to some yoga postures,” Mahroof said. People like Nouf and Mahroof have done a lot to remove misconceptions about yoga. But much more needs to be done for all to benefit from this ancient form of exercise that has been proven to have definitive health benefits. Look at any literature or brochure promoting yoga, and you will invariably find a woman — in many cases a Western woman — performing various asanas or postures. Yoga has been wrongly associated with women so much so that Patrick Broome, the yoga coach of the last World Cup winning German soccer team, reportedly found many team members embarrassed to join yoga classes, thinking it was a feminine activity. The UN's declaration of the International Day of Yoga on June 21 could not have come at a more appropriate time.
