Kuwait City: Muslim women in Kuwait have come out on the streets against the radical thinking government regarding yoga. Women demonstrated in front of Parliament against the ban on organizing the first open-air festival ‘Yoga Retreat’ to be held in Kuwait. An organization teaching yoga here had advertised organizing a ‘yoga retreat’ in the desert. After the publication of the advertisement, the radical leaders got furious. Seeing a growing controversy, the government banned the event.
Women who do yoga have told the decision of the government against their rights. Referring to personal freedom, women’s rights activist Najeeb Hayat said- ‘We have to protest in the cold night for our freedom. This struggle will continue till the government lifts the ban. It is not just about yoga, but about women’s freedom of all kinds.
This is a new trend in itself in a Gulf country, in which Muslim women have resorted to yoga to raise their voices against radicalism. On the other hand, Kuwait’s pros and cons have almost the same opinion. Opposition MP Hamdan al-Azmi has backed the ban, calling it a “cultural ridicule” to practice yoga in the open. Eland Alsharekh, who campaigns in support of women’s rights in Kuwait, said that Saudi Arabia is also slowly becoming aware of women’s freedom.
In the last three years, it has met many demands of women, while Kuwait is still known as a completely conservative and male-dominated society. In such a situation, women themselves will have to raise their voices for their rights. On the other hand, the government maintains that yoga is external, it has never been valid in Kuwaiti society. That’s why we have to continue the ban on doing yoga in the open.
Let us tell you that there are many such laws regarding women in Kuwait, about which there is dissatisfaction. There has been a long-standing conflict between the Kuwaiti government and progressive-thinking women. Here, if a man kills his wife on the suspicion of having an affair with another man, then he is punished with only 3 years in jail or fined only $ 46 (Rs 3,400). In such a situation, women’s organizations say that the government itself is promoting honor killing. That’s why movement is necessary. In a changing society, such rules have to be abolished.
