Photo from India and UAE shared as 2021 Yoga Day celebration in Saudi Arabia

The seventh International Yoga Day was celebrated on June 21 across the globe. BJP member Abhishek Roy shared two photographs claiming they show people practising Yoga in Saudi Arabia. (Archive link)

योगा = जान है तो जहांन है

यह सऊदी अरब की कुछ तस्वीरें उनके मुहँ पे तमाचा है,

जो कहते हैं कि योगा केवल एक समुदाय से तालुक रखता है😃😃 pic.twitter.com/NADOFl5VX6

— Abhishek Roy (@Royal_ladka) June 21, 2021

Twitter user @humlogindia promoted the identical claim.

The photos are widespread on Facebook and Twitter as Saudi Arabia.

Fact-check

First image

A reverse image search led us to several pictures of burqa-clad girls practising yoga in June 2015. A VOA News article dated June 18, 2019, claimed the image was taken in Ahmedabad. The accompanying caption stated, “Indian Muslim students practise yoga at a school ahead of the first International Yoga Day in Ahmedabad, India on June 17, 2015. The United Nations has declared that June 21 will be observed as International Yoga Day.”

BBC also carried this image in a report from June 19, 2015. Outlook published a few more pictures of students practising yoga at a school in Ahmedabad. The photo credits have ben given to Ajit Solanki of the Associated Press.

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Second image

This was found in a Gulf News story dated June 20, 2017. It states that members of the Bohra community in Abu Dhabi organised a yoga session at the Bohra Islamic Community Culture Society. The Indian-origin Dawoodi Bohra community had organised the session on the occasion of the third International Yoga Day. The event attracted over 500 attendees, including women. Indian Ambassador to the UAE Navdeep Singh Suri was also in attendance.

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Images from past editions of International Yoga Day in India and Abu Dhabi were recently shared as Saudi Arabia. However, yoga sessions were organised all over the world this year too.