NEW DELHI: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is gearing up to celebrate International Yoga Day on June 21 in the heart of Riyadh City.
Yoga in Saudi Arabia is recognised as Sports and is being promoted all across schools and colleges as part of Quality of Life and health programming under Vision 2030. As a run-up to Yoga Day, many events have already been organised in the country.
"On June 16th the Indian community in Saudi Arabia celebrated Yoga at Real Madrid Stadium in Riyadh and the programme was called 'Disha Yoga Meet’. More than 2000 Yoga enthusiasts joined the event which was by diplomats from other missions and also by Saudi Arabian Yoga instructor and Padma Awardee, Nouf AL Marwai who is also the President of the Saudi Yoga committee," Indian Ambassador to KSA, Dr Suhel Ajaz Khan told this paper adding that similar events were organised by Disha at Jeddah and Dammam which saw the participation of 1000 yoga enthusiasts.
There are many other cities across KSA that are celebrating Yoga Day which includes Al Jubail, Al Madinah, Al Munawawarah, Macce, Taif, Al Bahah, Abha, Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah and Najran.
Noug Marwaai was awarded India’s fourth largest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2018. She is the founder of the Arab Yoga Foundation in KSA which has taught Yoga to over 10,000 people and trained over 700 people to teach Yoga.
"I would like to thank the leadership of Saudi Arabia for embracing Yoga and permitting it to be practised all across the Kingdom,’’ Ambassador Ajaz added.
It was only in 2017 that Saudi Arabia was formally and officially introduced to yoga, back then taking baby steps to the practice through a virtual introductory lesson. Six years and countless initiatives later, Saudi Arabia's national team is a part of their first-ever international contest at Mt. Everest International Yoga Championship that was held in Kathmandu, Nepal from June 8-10.
Meanwhile, as a part of the Yoga Day celebrations the Indian Embassy is organising a seminar on Yoga in Riyadh on Monday (June 19th).
What would have seemed like a distant dream in KSA a few years back, has become a reality now as more and more people are practising Yoga which they feel is good for the mind, body and soul.