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25 JAN 2018 - 10:17AM
Learning yoga on Youtube helped this woman cope with life in a warzone Tw eet
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Living amidst hostility and instability in Kabul, Danielle Moylan centred herself with "There are limited opportunities to keep fit," says Danielle Moylan. (Andrew Quilty) Ashtanga yoga. By Cat Woods 25 Jan 2018 - 10:16 AM UPDATED 25 Jan 2018 - 10:17 AM Tw eet
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Living in hot, dusty Kabul, Australian NGO w orker and journalist, Danielle Moylan had committed to daily yoga practice w ith the aid of YouTube videos. Her solo practice w as a form of stress release and and therapy in a land w here suicide bombings and insurgency attacks are frequent occurrences. “Practising solely off YouTube in Afghanistan can be frustrating,” Moylan recalls, “as there are a lot of pow er cuts and an incredibly slow internet so it often ended up not w orking or being disrupted 20 minutes in. But I also follow Mysore style Ashtanga, w hich is a set sequence that I’d memorised.” Moylan’s life in the hub of w arzones had begun w hen she w as posted to Iran as a diplomat w ith the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in 2012. As w ith all DFAT postings, the tw o year posting ended w ith a requirement to return and w ork in Canberra. She had met and married Danish journalist Sune Rasmussen in Iran, and feeling her w ork in the region w as unfinished, Moylan chose to take on an advocacy management role w ith major NGO, the Norw egian Refugee Council (NRC) in Afghanistan in 2014. There w ould often be times w here I’d have to ask the class to freeze in position because an armed guard on patrol had to w alk through the room. Nine months after moving, she qualified as a yoga teacher w hile on a brief holiday to Thailand. On return to the fraught and fractious Kabul, she began teaching classes in addition to her role w ith the NRC. Her 90 minute yoga classes attracted foreign UN and NGO w orkers. Some w ere seeking stress release, some w anted the challenging physical training, but mostly, the benefit of being in a communal space drew them in. “Living in a place w here there is the threat of attack, and even just living and w orking in the same, small confined space w ith your co-w orkers is obviously stressful and there are limited opportunities to keep fit,” Moylan recalls. She had begun her human rights w ork in Kabul at around the time that international combat troops w ere preparing to w ithdraw . Lingering hostility from the ugly campaign betw een Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah had left foreign NGOs and the Afghan civilians fearful of further instability and the ongoing threat of Taliban insurgent attacks. “A lot of foreign UN and NGO w orkers live in heavily fortified compounds and, for security reasons, are not necessarily allow ed to go out. Sometimes, if a suicide attack had occurred or a foreigner had been kidnapped that day, most foreigners w ould be in lockdow n. It’s understandable from the security manager’s point of view , but it’s probably the time they could most benefit from being in a yoga class.” Mass phone surveillance, as w ell as the killings of several foreign journalists - including New York Times reporter Noor Ahmad Noori, Sw edish journalist Nils Horner and photojournalist Anja Niedringhaus - had raised the very real prospect of imprisonment, kidnapping or death amongst foreign w orkers. Know ing that time w as precious and that for many students, one class a w eek might be the sole exercise and communal activity
Know ing that time w as precious and that for many students, one class a w eek might be the sole exercise and communal activity they’d engage in, Moylan focused on an intense, challenging class. Rather than the sleek floorboards, candles and crystal-dotted interiors of Australian yoga studios, classes w ere held w herever there w as space. “We’d often use w hatever space w e could find, like a dingy basement, or w e’d pack a class of 20 students in a hallw ay. There w ould often be times w here I’d have to ask the class to freeze in position because an armed guard on patrol – fully kitted out in helmet and body armour, w ith a loaded rifle - had to w alk through the room. Classes w ould also start late as every student had to be screened carefully by security.” Once all the students w ere present, the strain of life in Kabul w ould be evident in their faces and bodies. “It w ouldn’t be uncommon for something terrible to have happened that w eek; everything from colleagues being kidnapped or killed, or relationships suffering because of the daily stress of living in a w arzone. I w ould try to make myself available after class to talk or just hang out and practise headstands.” Practising ashtanga brought together men and w omen from all nations. “I had regulars w ho w ere journalists, diplomats, think tank analysts, researchers, UN w orkers and NGO w orkers. The style of yoga I taught attracted a lot of men, and I had some extremely strong guys w ho w orked in security for embassies. Some of the ex-military guys could do 20 one-armed push-ups but still found a strong yoga class challenging.” Some w ere quite clearly traumatised and needed to be taught w ith care and a lot of encouragement. It w asn’t only foreigners that took advantage of Moylan’s classes. “I very occasionally taught Afghan w omen, including at a w omen’s shelter, and I do know another lovely yoga teacher that had a w eekly small class for young Afghan w omen. The w omen I taught at the shelter rarely left the grounds – [they came to the] shelter as runaw ays from abusive families or arranged marriages, and some w ere fearful of families or husbands tracking them dow n. Some w ere quite clearly traumatised and needed to be taught w ith care and a lot of encouragement.” The past year has been a time of transition. In 2017 Moylan uprooted her life in Kabul and travelled via Spain and the Pyrenees to London, w here she aw aited a Visa for Pakistan. She has resided there since September. She is still draw n to places w here human rights w ork and journalism are dangerous endeavours, and still dedicated to a daily yoga practice and to teaching. “At the moment, I am just taking on private students w ho are referred to me by w ord of mouth. It’s a rare day that I don’t do yoga. During the year, I try to spend a month somew here, studying w ith someone very advanced in teaching ashtanga to learn as much as possible from them as a w ay to further my training as a student an as a teacher.” Related content [ /topics/life/culture/article/2016/11/14/w eaving-indigenous-sounds-and-stories-yoga?cid=inbody:learning-yoga-on-youtubehelped-this-w oman-cope-w ith-life-in-a-w arzone ]
Weaving Indigenous sounds and stories into yoga A Sydney-based organisation is fusing Indian and Indigenous-Australian yoga traditions. [ /topics/content/28-days-afghanistan?cid=inbody:learning-yoga-on-youtube-helped-this-w oman-cope-w ith-life-in-a-w arzone ]
28 days in Afghanistan What's it like living in w ar-ravaged Afghanistan? For the next 28 days, aw ard-w inning photo-journalist Andrew Quilty shares a first-hand glimpse into his life. Recom m end 121 Tw eet More on this topic [ http://w w w .sbs.com.au/new s/node/1466193 ] World [ http://w w w .sbs.com.au/new s/new s ] Latest []
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