Arrest for Practicing “Indecent” Discipline of Yoga

That people attend small, private sessions to avoid being discovered and prosecuted by the authorities.

CHRI -After 30 people were arrested for practicing yoga inside a home in the Iranian city of Gorgan, several individuals based in the country told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) that the arrests are not uncommon but rarely publicly acknowledged by officials.

In this case, the assistant prosecutor of Golestan Province told the state-funded Tasnim News Agency that 30 unidentified men and women in “inappropriate clothing” were arrested at the home of a person who will be prosecuted for allowing unlicensed yoga to occur there.

“A person posted an ad on social media [Instagram] about teaching yoga to women and men at his home that led to the discovery of a series of contacts,” said Masoud Soleimani on May 22, 2019.

“This individual did not have a license for a sports club and held his yoga classes in a private residence where women and men wore inappropriate clothing and engaged in indecent activities,” he said.

The official added: “After monitoring their movements, agents today arrested about 30 women and women in very inappropriate clothing at a home whose owner has been delivered to judicial authorities to be prosecuted for breaking the law.”

A women’s rights activist told CHRI that the government “rarely” allows people to officially practice yoga so fans of the ancient Hindu discipline resort to doing it in secret.

“They are very suspicious of yoga and rarely issue permits for holding classes,” said the activist who requested anonymity for security reasons.

“Instead, individuals have to seek a license under the guise of different sports in order to offer yoga,” she said.

Another individual who practices yoga in Tehran told CHRI that people attend small, private sessions to avoid being discovered and prosecuted by the authorities.

Although yoga is growing increasingly popular in Iran, the government and religious leaders regard it as a violation of Shia Islamic morals.

Since he was appointed as the country’s supreme leader in 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has denounced various private lifestyle choices –including listening to or playing western music or watching foreign films–as evidence of the West’s “cultural invasion” in Iran.