Saudi Arabia Embraces Yoga In Move Towards 'Moderation'
JEDDAH: In a sparse, wood-floored studio, Saudi women squat, lunge and do headstands. Even a year ago, teaching these yoga postures could have rendered them outlaws in the conservative kingdom.
Yoga was not officially permitted for decades in Saudi Arabia.
But with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman vowing an "open, moderate Islam", the kingdom last November recognised yoga as a sport amid a new liberalisation drive that has sidelined religious hardliners.
Spearheading efforts to normalise yoga in the kingdom is Nouf Marwaai, a Saudi woman who has battled insults and threats from extremists.
"I have been harassed, (and) sent a lot of hate messages," said the 38-year-old head of the Arab Yoga Foundation, which has trained hundreds of yoga instructors in the kingdom.
"Five years ago, this (teaching yoga) would have been impossible," added Marwaai, as she began training a cluster of women students at a private studio in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.
Hanging up their body-shrouding abayas and headscarves, the women stretched in unison in an arching warrior pose known as "virabhadrasana".
Arms outstretched, their bodies folded into a 180-degree backward bending posture known as "chakrasana", or wheel pose.
In a country where women have long been denied the right to exercise publicly, the students -- some of whom regularly attend yoga retreats in India -- said the exercise had transformed their lives.
Ayat Samman, a 32-year-old health educator, said yoga helped alleviate her lifelong struggle with fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disorder that often left her bedridden.
Yoga also works as therapy, the women said, helping them vent bottled up emotions and tackle a woefully common ailment -- depression.
"It just opened me up like a water balloon," said Yasmin Machri, 32.
"After my first class... I started breaking down and crying."
Religious outreach
In just a few months since yoga's recognition, a new industry of yoga studios and instructors has sprouted in various Saudi cities. That includes Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest cities, Marwaai said.
Yoga was not officially permitted for decades in Saudi Arabia (AFP)
Prince Mohammed, the de facto ruler, has sought to project a moderate image of the kingdom, long associated with a fundamentalist strain of Wahhabi Islam, with a new push for inter-religious exchange.
Saudi Arabia in recent months has hosted officials linked to the Vatican and the prince also met a group of Roman Catholic and Jewish leaders in New York earlier this year, in a rare inter-faith gesture.
"The prince's outreach to other religions is apparent in the interfaith gatherings and the new enthusiasm for Saudi Arabia's pre-Islamic heritage," said Kristin Diwan, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
For decades, Saudi rulers derived much of their legitimacy from their alliance with a clerical establishment that pushed a puritanical vision of Islam.
But the prince appears to have upturned the system, seeking instead to tap support from the kingdom's swelling youth base through a surge of nationalism and a much-hyped modernisation drive.
Saudi columnists have openly called for abolishing the once-feared religious police as the kingdom introduces entertainment, including mixed-gender concerts, and re-opens cinemas after a decades-long ban.
Prominent hardline Salafist clerics with millions of followers on social media have been jailed, with some on death row, as the crown prince clamps down on dissent.
"The religious networks which once led campaigns against more liberal ideas appear cowed, but new practices like yoga are always subject to ad-hoc attacks," Diwan said.
'Nothing to do with religion'
Yoga is still regarded as a deviant practice in conservative circles, and Marwaai's students say they often confront accusations of betraying their religion.
"I receive messages through social media asking: 'Are you a Hindu? Did you turn into a Hindu?'" said Budur al-Hamoud, a recruitment specialist.
"Yoga has nothing to do with religion. It's a sport... It does not interfere with my faith."
Yoga is seen at odds with several other faiths, but the recognition of the practice in Saudi Arabia -- the epicentre of the Islamic world -- appears to have given a new impetus to Muslim yoga practitioners around the world.
Marwaai is taking on conservatives not just in the kingdom but also India, the birthplace of yoga where clerics last year slapped a fatwa, or religious edict, against a female Muslim yoga teacher just days before the kingdom recognised the sport.
In a shrill television debate, Marwaai -- a lupus survivor and recently awarded the Padma Shri -- calmly sought to reason with Muslim clerics who hurled insults at her.
The clerics were particularly opposed to "Surya Namaskar". "It is not the worshipping of the sun and the moon," Marwaai responded as tempers frayed, denying they engaged in chanting.
Unconvinced, a cleric said the set of physical movements in the Muslim prayer ritual offered enough exercise.
Courtesy: www.ndtv.com
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Guv invites Hemant Soren to form govt in Jharkhand, oath on Nov 28
Ranchi, Nov 24: JMM leader Hemant Soren on Sunday met Jharkhand Governor Santosh Kumar Gangwar and staked claim to form the government, soon after leaders of the INDIA bloc in the state unanimously elected him as the legislature party leader.
He resigned as the chief minister, before staking claim to form the government. He will officiate as the acting chief minister till oath is administered to him on November 28.
"I met the governor. We staked claim to form the government, and handed over support letter of alliance partners to him. He invited us to form the government. The swearing in ceremony will be held on November 28," Soren told reporters after meeting Gangwar.
Soren, who drove to the Raj Bhavan in his car, said the governor asked him to officiate as the acting chief minister in the interim.
Soren will be sworn in as the 14th chief minister of Jharkhand, which was carved out of Bihar on November 15, 2000. He will be sworn in as the chief minister for the fourth term.
Earlier, leaders and MLAs of the alliance, during a meeting at Hemant Soren's residence here, unanimously elected him as the coalition's leader.
Congress's Jharkhand in-charge and party general secretary Ghulam Ahmad Mir and senior party leader Rajesh Thakur also attended the meeting, besides legislators of the coalition parties.
In a stunning comeback, Hemant Soren's JMM-led alliance on Saturday stormed to power in Jharkhand for a second consecutive term, winning 56 seats in the 81-member assembly, despite an all-out blitz by the BJP-led NDA which managed only 24 seats.
The majority mark in the state assembly is 41 seats.
Soren retained the Barhait seat by defeating BJP's Gamliyel Hembrom by a margin of 39,791 votes.
Soren had to resign as the CM in January before being arrested by the ED in a money laundering case.
He is out on bail after he was released from jail on June 28 after nearly five months, as the high court granted him bail in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.
He had resigned as the CM shortly before his arrest on January 31 by the ED.
Hemant Soren, the son of JMM supremo Shibu Soren, began his political career in 2009 as a Rajya Sabha member, but his tenure in the upper House of Parliament was short-lived.
He resigned in 2010 to become the deputy chief minister in the BJP-led Arjun Munda government. However, the alliance collapsed in 2012, leading to President's Rule in the state. Despite this setback, Soren's resolve to lead Jharkhand never faltered.
In 2013, Soren became the state's youngest chief minister at the age of 38, forming the government with the support of Congress and RJD.
However, his first term was short-lived, as the BJP took power in 2014, and Soren became leader of the opposition.
A pivotal moment in his career came in 2016 when the BJP-led government attempted to amend laws protecting tribal land, such as the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act.
Soren led a massive movement to protect tribal rights, which not only earned him widespread support but also set the stage for his return to power.
In 2019, Soren, with the backing of his allies Congress and RJD, reclaimed the chief minister's office. His JMM party won 30 seats.
This time, the party won 34 seats, its highest ever tally in the 81-member Jharkhand Assembly, signaling the growing popularity of his leadership.
