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YO GA: A WO RLD OF ABU SE

Uma Dinsmore-Tuli explains why it’s time to stamp out the abuse of women in yoga…

MANY people are shocked to hear there is widespread abuse of women in yoga. Every kind of abuse occurs in yoga teaching and training environments: from rape and trafficking, through sexual assault and sexual violence to bullying, shaming, grooming, gaslighting, sleep deprivation and financial and emotional exploitations. I have heard so many testimonies, and seen so much evidence that I have come to the conclusion that nobody’s daughters are safe in yoga spaces.

In May 2020 I launched a campaign, Yoni Shakti, to eradicate the abuse of women in yoga and to reclaim yoga as a tool for planetary healing and justice. Within two weeks our initial crowd funder campaign reached our target of £18,000, and opened a vibrant, growing, Facebook group of supporters with 3,500 members. Clearly, this is an issue whose moment has come. The funds

raised will finance a largescale public awareness and education campaign to inform yoga students, and to re-educate yoga teacher-trainers to ensure the abuse ends.

The second part of the campaign calls for a reclamation of yoga as a tool for planetary healing and justice. As a mother, author and a yoga therapist specialising in Women’s Health, I first encountered yoga in 1965. I’ve been training yoga therapists since 2001. Since my earliest experiences, I’ve been aware of the dismissive and disrespectful way that many yoga teachers treat ‘women’s issues’ such as menstruation, menopause, pregnancy and postnatal recovery: these experiences are often overlooked or mismanaged in standard classes.

I first heard rumours of sexual assaults in the Sivananda Yoga Ashram where I trained as a teacher in 1996, and I witnessed bullying and shaming there too. When I was writing Yoni Shakti – A Woman’s guide to power and freedom trough yoga and tantra, I began to receive evidence of rape, sexual assault and other abuses women had experienced in yoga organisations.

Abuse is widespread. In 2014, an Australian Royal Commission uncovered evidence of rape and assault of children and young girls in the Satyananda Yoga organisation. Several gurus such as Bikram Choudhry, of Bikram Hot Yoga, have been convicted of sexual and financial abuses of their students. Sexual assaults have been reported against senior teachers and founders of several traditional lineages and transnational yoga brands such as the Iyengar Yoga Organisation, Himalayan Institute and the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta organisations.

If you or anyone you know has experienced abuse within a yoga organisation or from a yoga teacher, then report your experiences to the police. Seek support from allies who understand your truth and will support you. Anything that does not feel ‘right’ or comfortable in your own body is may be a sign of abuse of power or the breaking of safe boundaries by yoga leaders.

There are cultures of collusion and community enabling of abuse. Some people benefit from their proximity to the power of the teacher or leader, while others profit from doing nothing to prevent harm. In these cultures it is hard to speak out, so I strongly encourage women who have experienced abuse to seek allies and other truth-seekers and to be aware that these experiences are traumatic and that professional counselling is in order to recover from the abuse and from the process of sharing it. Together we are changing this culture and reclaiming yoga a tool for healing and justice. n

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The www.yonishaktithemovment.

com crowd funder continues

to welcome contributions. The updated

edition of Yoni Shakti, which includes

details of abuses, warning signs and calls

to action is available from the end of June

from www.yonishakti.co