Nouf Al-Marwaai Yoga ambassador of Saudi Arabia

Nouf Al-Marwaai had been a sickly child and was diagnosed with systemic lupus at the age of 17. The doctors informed her parents that there wasn't much hope of her being cured. She read a Yoga book that her father had brought from his travels, and started practicing a few asanas. Over time as she continued practicing Yoga, her health improved, allowing her to graduate from college with high honors and she became a full time Yoga practitioner. In an interview, she said after starting Yoga and Ayurveda, she has lived 21 years without any medications.

” she said.

“ I started self-practicing with the limited resources I could access. I found an Indian teacher and started practicing with her for a year. Very soon, I realized its benefits for the mind and body.

“Continuing the practice regularly for years, I found that the practice and the knowledge are linked with many facts in psychology and science. Practicing it is not just an exercise, but its effects are far reaching, more than our brain can imagine.

“This made me serious and I wanted to study the science behind it, for which I started traveling and educating myself in different colleges, medical centers for yoga and Ayurveda clinics in different countries at the age of 24.”

She then started receiving frequent invitations to address seminars and lectures about yoga and Ayurveda. After she was made the regional director of Yoga Alliance International (YAI) in 2009 in the Gulf region by Swami Vidyananda, the founder of YAI in India, people started to know more about yoga and enquired more about it and its health benefits.

Nouf Al Marwaai who is the country's first certified yoga instructor and has been honored with india's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri now Maruwai is also the founder of the Arab yoga foundation