Looking for an ‘exit’ from the constraints of a life away from home and family, where her unique light felt dimmed by the limitations of a ‘conservative’ domain. Practicing yoga wherever and whenever possible she found a new peace, a new challenge and in turn, a new community. Enchanted by her colorful Instagram feed, Aligned reached out to Shamsiha of Malaysia by way of Saudi Arabia. Where and how did you find this practice? It was like a kind of exit. When I started, it was out of boredom. There are a lot of things you cannot do here– you can’t wear anything fancy, just black dress. I learned my yoga through Instagram. It was actually introduced to me by my friend. She told me just do an Instagram account and start doing the yoga challenges. I just started doing the simple one by Kino and Yoga Beach Girl. Then I said ‘what the hell’, come on, I have nothing to lose anyway. I never thought it would become my passion. Honestly, if I didn’t live in Saudi Arabia I wouldn’t even do or know any yoga poses. So it’s an honor to have this kind of life. I really feel so honored and blessed about this. How many of these challenges have you done? Oh my God, well I guess now I’ve been doing this now for almost 2 years, right. Maybe more than 200 challenges. Yea, in one month I can do like 20 yoga challenges. I am crazy about it. I actually have been having a lot of fun. And you know the best part about Instagram yoga? Those people they don’t judge me, they don’t judge me what I’m wearing, they don’t judge where I came from. It’s such a beautiful community. This is one of the reasons why I’m staying on Instagram and with this yoga community. They are so awesome. Are you mimicking the poses just by looking at images or do you look up the pose online? Saudi Arabia doesn’t have yoga classes. Once a year I try to go to a class.I have a lot of flexibility and after I got more serious in yoga, I started to actually watch videos. Honestly, most of the time I just look up the pose. I really don’t have a formal knowledge about the practice. You’re also a physical therapist, so do you have any advice for people who practice yoga regularly? Well obviously, you know people are so eager to achieve asana. That’s the problem with us. Even now starting yoga, the more I did it, in my brain, I thought ‘OK now I’ve go to get this asana; and this and this and this’. Even for my patients, I always prescribe some yoga poses for back pain, neck pain, and strengthening. For my yogi friends, I always advise them to take the journey as slow as possible. I’m not going to stop you, you won’t stop me, but just listen to the body because you’re still progressing. When you push too much on your body, injuries will come. It’s very scary, once you have the injuries you can not turn back the time. Have you had an injury before that stopped you from practicing yourself? Oh luckily, no. That’s the good thing about being a physical therapist. The moment I know my body can’t take it anymore, for example, a backbend, it’s not something you can push all the time. Because don’t forget: your spine is not born with flexibility. You have to take it slowly, and work the flexibility of the spine day by day, not just one time and that’s it. If you’re going to do the bow pose one time and that’s it, it might cause injuries. I am so blessed with the knowledge that I have from my profession. I listen to my body. I haven’t had any injuries, at all, for now. Can you tell me more about the things that you choose to wear in the poses and the locations? Being a Muslim yogi, you know I’m fully covered. I don’t like black. Honestly, it just makes me so depressed, so I like to find striking colors. All the vibrant colors to show that yoga doesn’t have to be boring. You don’t have to wear black or grey or white. It can be colorful. At the same time I try to represent how colorful I can be. I am such an open book. I can actually be with anybody. I am that colorful I don’t have to stick to just one color or another. Since I live in a closed compound I don’t have any other places that I can actually do my yoga. My images are taken in an abandoned skateboard kind of place. It’s actually next to the road believe it or not. So that’s the only place that I can take pictures. I’ve learned to utilize every single thing around me. I guess, when you are in a conservative country you have to get creative. Obviously I cannot strike a pose outside, in the public; they take it very seriously. They don’t mess around here. And when I travel– anything with a view, the blue sky especially, that’s my favorite place to strike yoga poses. It doesn’t matter where as long as there is a beautiful view. Do you feel that yoga is maybe a good partner for your religious or spiritual beliefs or do you think of them separately? I see yoga as a separate thing. I just take it as a kind of exercise, a fitness thing. I don’t see it as a spiritual thing, because I have my own beliefs. I have my own faith. I stick to it, but I still respect Hinduism. When I practice yoga, it’s about finding peace and love within myself and accepting myself. This is the peace I couldn’t find in my religion, but I find it in yoga. When I am doing it and accepting myself, I’m not judging myself. I’ve learned that a lot from yoga. What have you found most inspirational amongst your Instagram community? We always have this one problem with ourselves: we never actually feel secure about ourselves. We never actually accept ourselves. But I guess in yoga, this is what actually unites us, most of us. Yoga especially accepts us as we are. At the same time it’s OK to hate yourself at the beginning, but once you get to know yourself better- you start to love yourself. It’s very beautiful. It inspired me so much because being a Muslim and being in a conservative country, it’s not easy to just accept the way you are. Why? Because us being covered, us being Muslim, it’s always easy to judge. So you just start to hate yourself since you start to hate the way you dress and hate that way people look at you. But I don’t see this in the yoga community. I just feel I am the way I am. People love me the way I am. I don’t have to change for anybody. That’s the beauty of it. Do you have fellow yogis that are also Muslim? Actually I have a lot more virtual friends than I do in reality. I have a variety of friends on Instagram. Most are not Muslim. I have a gay friend too, who is super sweet. Mostly the Arabs follow me, they might be Muslim, but most of them just want to see a Muslim that’s upside down. I imagine just like what everybody wants to see. But mostly they are from America. Yeah, I like this diversity thing. You know. It’s nice and it’s very eye-opening. Does your family support you in your yoga exploration? Yes they are very supportive, they don’t give a damn if I go upside down. Actually my husband is the one who says ‘oh oh this is a nice one for you, let’s do it’. I’ve been living in Saudi Arabia actually for 7 years until now. I go home once a year or every 6 months to spend time with the family. But the rest of the time I am in Saudi Arabia. How do you feel as a woman practicing in Saudi Arabia or even Malaysia. Do you feel that it’s very different? Well in Saudi Arabia definitely, I feel more intimidated by the culture here. I don’t really feel like I have the freedom to actually practice it. But yoga is very accepted in Malaysia. In Saudi Arabia it’s a big challenge because you have to practice it discretely. You cannot just strike any pose or just do anything in the public. You have to behave. Not in every country or every culture can you do whatever you want. In many ways you have to respect the culture and tradition of things. It’s a bit of a challenge, but somehow it gives me power mentally. “The ship doesn’t sink because of the water around them, ships sink because of water that gets in them. Don’t let what’s happening around you get inside you and weigh you down.” We always get caught up with our surroundings. We are thinking about what people think of us instead of what we actually think of ourselves. You know? So we start to not love ourselves and just do what pleases other people. I’ve been through a lot in my life for the past 30 years. Why should I agree with what surrounds me instead of believing in myself. The people that I love matters most. Recently, I’ve been thinking about how stunning it is that people all over the world are practicing yoga. Even for different reasons and from different beginnings. It’s eye-opening when you realize that yoga is actually for everybody. It’s not just for people with the flexibility, or really healthy people, or that kind of thing. It’s for everybody. Further Reading from the Human Rights Watch: Saudi Arabia: Women Are “Changing the Game”
