Yoga is to become more widely accessible across Saudi Arabia’s universities, it was revealed on Thursday.
Nouf Al Marwaai, who presides over the Saudi Yoga Committee, said the activity would become ‘a sustainable practice’ in universities throughout the kingdom.
She said agreements had been signed by the Saudi Universities Sports Federation and the Ministry of Education, as part of the continuing efforts to enlist yoga in the further education establishments.
“We will go ahead with MoUs to make yoga a sustainable practice, which includes training, practice, competitions, social activities in universities and research in the field of education and yoga,” Ms Al Marwaai said.
She was recently invited as a speaker to the ‘Role of University Sports in Supporting the Kingdom’s Vision in Sports’ forum in Riyadh.
Several university administrators, including the president of the International Universities Sports Federation, Leonz Eder, and Paulo Ferreira, director general of the International University Sports Federation, attended the event.
“I am grateful for things happening fast and on a larger scale and thankful to the Ministry of Sport for their support and of our leadership who made this happen, and take care of our athletes and practitioners,” Ms Al Marwaai said.
She said the formation of the yoga committee was an example of the backing “we receive from our leadership”.
Yoga has grown in popularity in the kingdom over the past two decades.
“I have been practising yoga for almost 10 years now and been teaching it for five,” said Raha Abdullah, a yoga instructor in Jeddah. “It's very popular with women and men, even during lockdown we had both genders practise yoga with us using online links, so it is a very passionate and committed community,” she told The National.
Ms Al Marwaai revealed that even the president of the Asian Yoga Federation, Lamish Lohan, has labelled the kingdom as “the most developed country in yoga in this region”, when he came to train practitioners in Saudi Arabia. The spread of the activity has led to it being used in other sports, such as asana, a form of softball.
“Compared to the other Gulf countries, we have more citizens and expats who practise and teach yoga here in the kingdom,” said Ms Al Marwaai. “In our last championship we had 112 yoga asana players register, 95 of whom were girls.”
Most participants are aged 15-25, the prime age for one to become an elite player in yoga asana, she added.
Saudi Arabia's first yoga championship took place in Jeddah at the University of Business and Technology in December.
