Images From India and Abu Dhabi Shared as ‘Yoga in Saudi Arabia’

None of the pictures show yoga being practiced in Saudi Arabia. One is from Abu Dhabi and the other from Ahmedabad.

Social media users have claimed that the photographs show Muslims practising yoga in Saudi Arabia.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A set of photographs is being shared on social media claiming to show people from Saudi Arabia practising yoga. Both images are shared with a claim in Hindi, which states that yoga does not belong to any community.

We found that one of the images was from Ahmedabad, where school children were participating in yoga whereas the other was from Abu Dhabi, where Bohra Muslims from India were performing yoga at a community centre.

This was shared in the backdrop of Yoga Day, which is celebrated on 21 June.

CLAIM

The photos are shared with a claim in Hindi, which states, "यह सऊदी अरब की कुछ तस्वीरें उनके मुहँ पे तमाचा है, जो कहते हैं कि योगा केवल एक समुदाय से तालुक रखता है"

(Translation: These are some photos from Saudi Arabia and are a slap on the face of those who say that yoga is only related to one community.)

The archived version of this post can be found here.

(Photo: Facebook/Screenshot)

More claims of Facebook and Twitter can be seen here, here, here and here.

WHAT WE FOUND

We ran reverse image searches on both photographs and found that neither of them were from Saudi Arabia.

IMAGE 1

(Photo:Facebook/Screenshot)

Using reverse image search, we found a news report by Gulf News that carried the image. According to the report, 500 members from the Bohra Muslim community organised a yoga event at their community cultural center in Abu Dhabi. The event took place on the occasion of the third International Yoga Day in 2017.

(Photo: Gulf News/Screenshot)

IMAGE 2

This photo shows school children in Ahmedabad practising yoga before the first International Yoga Day celebrations in 2015, as per a report by Zee News. We found another report by VOA which carried the same photograph.

(Photo: Zee News/Screenshot)

Reportedly a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Saudi Arabia and India to promote formal yoga standards in the Gulf kingdom on the occasion of the seventh International Yoga Day, according to reports by DNA and WION.

Clearly, neither of these photographs show people in Saudi Arabia practising yoga. They are from a community event held in 2017 in Abu Dhabi and a school's practise session prior to the first International Yoga Day in Ahmedabad, in 2015.

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