Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will soon have licenced yoga practitioners. The Saudi Ministry of Trade and Industry has listed ‘Teaching Yoga’ under Sports and Business activities in a notification issued on Tuesday on the government’s website. This makes practising and propagation of Yoga a certified sports activity.
Nouf Marwaai, an Arab practising Yoga since she was 19 years old, became the first certified woman yoga trainer in Saudi in 2010 at the age of 30.
An Ayurveda expert as well, Nouf trained in other countries including India. Speaking to Arab News in an earlier interview, she had said Yoga and Islam are not at conflict with each other as “yoga was the practice of people living in the pre-Buddhist era, over 5,000 years ago”.
She had advocated Yoga regardless of religious background of patients and told Arab News, “It is more a lifestyle and a science than a religion.”
At an estimated 30 lakh, Indians form the largest community of expatriates in the Kingdom. June 21 was recognised as the International Yoga Day by the United Nations after an Indian proposal by the Narendra Modi government in 2015 was adopted unanimously by the General Assembly.
The Indian missions in Saudi celebrated Yoga Day across many schools in the kingdom with much enthusiasm for the first time in 2015.
