While religious zealots disrupted an International Yoga Day session at Male, the capital city of Maldives on Tuesday and chased away the participants terming Yoga as un-Islamic, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, dominated by puritanical Islamic theology has wholeheartedly welcomed the ancient Indian system of knowledge and wisdom. Schools in Saudi Arabia have included Yoga in their curriculum as a sports and wellness mission.  A media release by Saudi Yoga Committee, a constituent of the Ministry of Sports in Saudi Arabia said that a massive programme is underway to popularise Yoga all over the Kingdom.

Hereafter Yoga sessions would be a daily event in all Saudi Arabian physical fitness centres. The Saudi Arabian Government’s Ministry of Sports has launched Saudi Yoga Committee to popularise Yoga among the Kingdom’s population and has issued orders to open Yoga schools in all physical wellness centres across the country.

Nouf Al-Marwaai, who was honoured with Padma Shree by the Government of India for her efforts to propagate Yoga across the Kingdom has been appointed as president of Saudi Yoga Committee by the Kingdom’s rulers. An important development of the IYD 2022 was the hashtag #Invest In Yoga launched by Marwaai and the unprecedented response it received from Saudi citizens. The Yoga Day organised by the Indian Consulate in Riyadh turned out to be a huge success as hundreds of Saudi citizens and physical fitness freaks thronged the Consulate for getting initiated into Yoga.

The Ministry of Sports, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, will ensure that all cities in the Kingdom have Yoga centres to make it accessible to all citizens. In a major development, the Saudi Government opened an exclusive page for Yoga in its Sports Ministry’s website, giving the arts of Yoga equal status to other sports activities.

According to a release by the Indian Consulate, the Yoga has a global market share of $ 215 billion and the Saudi Government is looking for a major chunk of this investment opportunity. The year 2022 opened a new chapter in Saudi Arabia’s enthusiasm for Yoga as the conservative rulers in the Kingdom announced cash prizes for winners in the Yoga Sports as well as Yoga Championship. Senior officials of Saudi Sports Ministry took part in the IYD event held by office of the Indian Consul General in Jeddah.